American Historical Society of Germans from Russia

AHSGR Intro to German Russian Genealogy
2023-03-13 13:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | AHSGR Headquarters, 631 D St., Lincoln, NE, 68502, United States
Intro to Germans from Russia Genealogy
March 13th
Cost: Free to members and $20 to nonmembers; Sign up is required
Limit: 15 people
Time: 1pm-4pm

Genealogist and long-time AHSGR member Mike Meisinger will provide an overview on how to start your journey to discover your German Russian roots including: how to find your ancestors’ Russian village, resources available based on that information, and how to find the German origin of your ancestors before they migrated to the Russian Empire. Attendees will also have an hour and a half to tour the library and archives, familiarize themselves with what is available onsite and online, and talk to the Librarian and Archivist and the presenter. Make sure to sign up by March 9, 2023. (Presentation will be filmed and placed on website for members-only access after March 22)

Click Here to Register

RootsTech 2023
2023-03-02 - 2023-03-04
Visit AHSGR’s booth at the 2023 RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The conference will be held March 2-4, 2023, both in-person and virtually. Registration is open now.

Treffen Tuesday
2023-02-28 17:30 - 18:30 (America/Chicago)
February – Howard Foote and LaDonna Hunt, “Chapters in Action: Restoration of an abandoned cemetery in Oklahoma”
Presentation:
In the fall of 2017, the Oklahoma chapter took on the restoration of the abandoned Mennonite Brethren Cemetery, a few miles north, of Eakly, OK.
Their initial findings indicated that there were many issues that needed to be addressed, so they went to work. What they found was an enormous wealth of information and a lack of information about the people buried there. Initially the investigation uncovered 4 visible head stones and a memorial stone that had been erected in 1998 to take the place of all the missing grave markers. Many birth and death dates were missing, one birth date off by 30 years and much, much more.
Biographies:
Howard Foote
Howard grew up on a farm near the small town of Bessie, Oklahoma, a settlement of Germans from Russia from Ukraine. He was originally taught to speak German but as soon as he started Sunday school all classes were in English, and he completely forgot all his German except for a memorized short prayer.
Living in a Mennonite community he heard the low German Plautdietsch and decided to take German in college. He graduated with a degree in Mathematics and a minor in German from Tabor College. He became involved with the Central Oklahoma Chapter in 2006 and served as president of the chapter from 2013 – 2015. He is an avid researcher and is involved with the Facebook group of Mennonite Genealogy and History.
Ladonna Hunt
Ladonna was born and raised on a farm southwest of Corn, Oklahoma, a Mennonite Brethren community of Germans from Russia. Although born into a GR family she knew very little of her heritage except she learned that her grandfather had immigrated from Russia, the Ukraine area, when he was 2 years old.
LaDonna spent summers in the wheat field helping her father and after the harvest worked the land on a tractor preparing for the next harvest. She graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University and became a schoolteacher.
She learned more about her heritage when she began working with Howard Foote, her second cousin. Her interest was piqued when she located the 100-year-old cemetery and learned so much more about her GR heritage – a heritage she loves to share with her family.
In the course of events, she also learned that her mother’s parents had come from Russia too, from the Frank area, and that her parents and her brother were members of the Central Oklahoma AHSGR.

AHSGR Book Club
2023-02-27 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago)
Join us on February 27 to talk about Second Hoeing by Hope Williams Sykes. This historical fiction novel is considered a classic. The plot revolves around the Schreissmiller family and their trials and tribulations as Germans from Russia immigrants working the sugar beet fields. Your purchase through the online store supports AHSHR and its mission.

Register on Zoom Here

Purchase Here

Treffen Tuesday
2023-01-31 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
January – Ann Stewart, “REMNANTS: A Family’s Escape from Stalin’s Russia and the Child They Left Behind”
Presentation:
When I was in third grade, my grandfather told me he had been imprisoned. “Lubyanka,” he whispered as if I knew what that meant. “In Russia.”
I was horrified, wondering what my grandfather had done to be put in jail. And did this mean we were Russians? Worse yet, Grandpa confessed, to escape, he and Grandma had left a child behind. That didn’t match anything I knew about these two beloved grandparents.
Years later, when I came home from my first year of college, my dad asked me to investigate and record his in-laws’ story, knowing it needed to be preserved for our family history. For the next forty years, I wrote and rewrote, gaining further knowledge through advances in technology and access to information, waiting for the right time to publish the unbelievable story of two German Mennonites from the Crimea. I would learn how everything came down to one critical winter in Moscow 1929 when the rest of the world was falling apart economically.
The presentation will include visuals (photos and documents), stories, and readings from the book.
Biography:
ANN MARIE STEWART is the Christy Award® winning author of Stars in the Grass, followed up by IPPY award winning Out of the Water, and an October 2022 release of All is Calm, All is Bright. The next book, the narrative non-fiction REMNANTS shares her grandparents’ escape from Russia in 1929.
Ann also authored Preparing My Heart for Advent, Preparing My Heart for Easter, and Preparing My Heart for Motherhood and writes the column “Ann’s Lovin’ Ewe” for The Country Register. Ann combines her experience in education, musical theatre, and film and television to dramatize her writing.

Book Club
2022-11-07 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Join us on November 7 to talk about Then the Rules Changed by Carolyn Zeisset. The author will be there to give background information and hopefully, tell more of the story that comes from her own Mennonite family history.
Register on Zoom Here
Purchase Here

WikiTree Genealogy Symposium
2022-11-04 08:00 - 2022-11-05 20:00 (America/New_York)
Visit AHSGR Virtual Booth at WikiTree’s 14th Annual Genealogy Symposium
AHSGR is participating in WikiTree’s 14th Annual Genealogy Symposium November 4-5, 2022. The event is free to attend; there will be many videos to view on Friday that leads into presentations and games throughout Saturday. While people can participate without registering, those who do sign up are eligible for all events, games, and door prizes.
Registration and links to daily itineraries are located on the WikiTree:
Link to the AHSGR WikiTree

Treffen Tuesday
2022-10-25 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Presenter: Allyn Brosz
Allyn Brosz is a South Dakota native with German Russian ancestry from Bessarabia and Glueckstal colonies. He retired in 2021 from his career in the U.S. Department of Defense. He is a life Member of AHSGR and GRHS as well as a member of the Glueckstal Colonies Research Association Steering Committee. In the past he served on the AHSGR Board of Directors, worked with Emma Schwabenland Haynes in identifying Germans from Russia in the National Archives and has published articles in AHSGR’s Journals, and Clues. He has also been a presenter at numerous AHSGR and GRHS conventions.
Allyn has a graduate degree in Political Science, Public Administration and Policy, and has studied in Germany on a Fulbright Grant.
Allyn will focus his presentation on the photo taken by Augustus Sherman in 1905 while the family was detained for an immigration hearing at Ellis Island and the subsequent fate of the family once they were admitted. In addition, he will also describe the Ellis Island experience during the peak immigration years of 1900 to 1920.
Click Here to register on Zoom

Oktoberfest 2022
2022-10-08 16:30 - 18:00 (America/Chicago)
Join us for a family fun Oktoberfest is TODAY at 4-6:30 PM at the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia at 631 D St. Lincoln, NE.
Free food and drinks will be provided, including runzas from Runza!
Activities include: German Russian games, tours of the museum, and a bouncy house!
You wont want to miss this event!

Treffen Tuesday
2022-09-27 13:30 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Presenter: Dr. Tatjana Schell
Born to a Volga German family, Katrin Schell, Tatjana’s mother, spent her early childhood in the 1950s-1960s in the region of Omsk in western Siberia where her parents and their respective families had been brought to following the deportation from their native village of Seewald on the Volga River. Growing up as the middle child of her family, she enjoyed the life in a tight-knit community of German families, where children played outside even in subzero temperatures, grandmothers ruled the household, and chores were plentiful and to be done in a timely manner.
In 1966, Katrin’s parents decided to move their family back to their Volga homeland, after spending 25 years living in Siberia. After graduating from college, she spent nearly twenty-five years working as a paramedic in the city of Volgograd. Following her family‘s move to Germany in the late 1990s, she was able to continue working in the medical field in the new country.
In their Treffen Tuesday presentation, Tatjana will ask Katrin about her time growing up in a small and tight-knit German community in Siberia and her adolescent years living in the village of Frank on the Volga.

Click Here to register on Zoom

AHSGR Book Club: Cry Out of Russia
2022-09-12 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
https://ahsgr.leemediagroup.com/?post_type=tribe_events&p=22084

Treffen Tuesday
2022-08-30 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Presenter: Dr. Ann Braaten

Ann Braaten is an associate professor in the Apparel, Retail Merchandising and Design program at North Dakota State University Emily Reynolds Historic Costume Collection at NDSU, an archive of over 5000 clothing and textile items that reflect the history of the region, the history of fashion and international dress. The collection houses textile and clothing artifacts from the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at NDSU. Braaten focuses on Germans from Russia families’ shawls that had been passed through the woman’s side of the family to help bring women’s history into focus.
Collection (GRHC) has built a textiles and clothing that is representative of the Germans from Russia (GFR) from the Bessarabian, Black Sea, Crimea, Dobrudscha and Volhynian areas. Originally these textile objectified a member of this ethnic group. Today, they provide evidence of GFR traditions, traits, and experiences. This presentation will highlight GFR textiles and clothing and related oral traditions to give evidence of their adaptation to the many challenges they encountered. The GRHC Textiles and Clothing Collection is a partnership between GRHC in the NDSU Libraries and Education.

Click Here to Register on Zoom

AHSGR 2022 Annual Convention
2022-07-27 - 2022-07-30 | Doubletree by Hilton Greeley at Lincoln Park, 919 7th St, Greeley, CO, 80631, United States
The 2022 annual convention will be held in Lincoln, Nebraska. This will be a hybrid event featuring in-person presentations, but also offering Zoom accessible sessions for virtual participation for some presentations.
Virtual Registration Cutoff
Registration for the virtual convention will be available through Wednesday, July 27th, until 5PM CST.

Treffen Tuesday
2022-07-12 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
We are pleased to announce the Peter Hilkes presentation on the War in Ukraine has been rescheduled! Join us Tuesday, July 12th at 2:00 PM Central.

PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE – Peter is presenting from Munich, Germany.

Peter Hilkes is a very well-known lecturer and researcher at Ludwig Maximillian University and Ukraine Free University in Munich. In addition, he works as a program coordinator for the House of Resources in Munich, a network of Migrant organizations.
He has published on German monitories in the Soviet Union and the successor states as well as on integration issues in Germany regarding transformation in the educational system, with a specific emphasis on Ukraine.
Peter was the head of the information and coordination office for German-Ukraine relations in Berlin (2002-2008) and Senior Civil Society Expert of a non-government organization project at OSCE In Kiev in 2006.
Peter is extremely involved with the current Ukraine situation and the people fleeing to escape the horrors of the Russian invasion of their country.
“War in Ukraine: situation and historical background. The perspective from German Russians”
Peter’s presentation will focus on the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine and the traumatic effect on the people fleeing the invasion of their country.
He will share with us his vast knowledge of the history of Ukraine, their people, and their strong and brave defense of their country. Millions of people have fled Ukraine but many of the husbands and fathers have remained behind to help ward off the invaders. He will provide first-hand information on current events and the desire of a vast majority of migrants who wish to return to their country.
Click Here to Register for Treffen Tuesday!

Treffen Tuesday
2022-05-31 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
In this presentation we will learn why the sisters, Jackie and Janine Pfeiffer, decided to write a book about their childhood memories of the 1950’s. We will learn the background and how the documenting led to publication of their book, While the Windmill Watched: A Slice of Rural America in the 1950’s. Jackie and Janine grew up on the plains of North Dakota near Menoken, just 10 miles east of Bismarck, North Dakota. The book is not only a memoir but also an historical account which highlights technological changes that advanced comfort and prosperity for rural America. They will include information about their Germans from Russia Heritage through their paternal grandmother, Justina Brost Pfeiffer. You may wish to check out Memoir | While the Windmill Watched | Home

AHSGR Book Club
2022-05-02 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Sheri Rohn Ertl will host a book discussion for the historical fiction book In the Far Country by Warren Schwartz. The book is available through the AHSGR Bookstore.
Click Here to Register for Zoom
Click Here to Buy In the Far Country

Treffen Tuesday
2022-04-26 13:30 - 15:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Lena Wolf currently lives in London, but grew up in Kazakhstan as a child of Germans from Russia parents. Lena’s mother Angelina, was born in the German village of Blumenfeld in Ukraine and her father Adam, was born in the German village of Gnadenfeld, not far from Rostov on Don. Both were deported in 1941 to Kazakhstan when they were still very young. Lena’s family moved to Germany in 1990. She completed her two degrees, BA in Linguistics, and a Master’s in Management Studies, in Wellington, New Zealand. Lena is currently working on a graphic novel about the history of Germans from Russia in the Soviet Union.
A Graphic Novel: The true story of a German family who stayed behind in the Soviet Union
In Lena’s graphic novel, she tells the story of Germans from Russia who stayed behind in the Soviet Union. The story is told from the perspective of three women: Lena’s grandmothers Emilia and Josephine and Lena. Grandma Emilia tells us about the deportation from her village in Russia to Kazakhstan, a journey that took more than 4 weeks in freezing conditions. Grandma Josephine tells us about her gulag sentence of 20 years in Vorkuta, a place located 150 km north of the arctic circle. Lena tells us about what it was like to grow up as a German child in Kazakhstan; Baking ‘Zuckerkuchen’ with her grandmother and eating ‘Beshbarmak’ (a Central Asian dish) with her friends.
In her presentation she will focus on one part of the story, the deportation of Grandmother Emilia to Kazakhstan. She will show the latest illustrations and will meet Grandmother Emilia and Lena as graphic novel characters. Participants will learn how Grandmother Emilia survived when they arrived in Kazakhstan in -35 degrees (-31 Fahrenheit) and were dropped off in the snow covered steppe with no protection in sight.

Treffen Tuesday
2022-03-29 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Presenter: Wayne Bonner
Although virtually all members of AHSGR have heard the story of Catharine the Great and her manifesto of 1763 inviting settlement in Russia, not everyone is aware of the population movements that occurred prior to that epic migration. Numerous Germans, primarily from the present German states of Baden-Wurttemberg and the Palatine (Pfalz), relocated to Brandenburg beginning in the 1740’s where Frederick the Great was building his new capital of Berlin and required skilled laborers. Still others, estimated to have been at least 5,000, answered the invitation of Frederick V of Denmark beginning in 1759 to settle unimproved land in the regions of Jutland and the Duchy of Schleswig
The Danish settlement movement has been studied for some time, but most of the works were written in German or Danish and not generally available to researchers in North America. However, in 2012 Drs. Alexander, Jacob and Mary Eichhorn produced a volume that will stand for years as the principal investigation of the Danish “experience”. Wayne’s presentation will not delve so much into the history of this settlement, but instead will discuss the specific parish records that the Eichhorn research alludes to.
The parish records of Denmark, which at the tine included much of present-day Schleswig, were researched for clues to events associated with the German “Colonists” as they were designated. During this period, children were born, marriages were performed, and colonists died. By examining virtually all the currently accessible parish records of Jutland and Schleswig for the time span between 1759 and 1766, Mike Meisinger, Herb Femling and Wayne, have been able to identify some 500 entries that can be tied to specific German-Russian settlers. Not only has this project identified these records and therefore added to the growing list of origins for many Volga settlers, but also provided important clues to some of their origins in Germany.
In this presentation, Wayne will discuss specific examples of some of the findings. Although our effort emphasizes examples of records associated with Balzer and Moor settlers, additional parish records were identified of settlers to thirty-two other German-Russian colonies. Prior to the 2021 virtual AHSGR convention, a full copy of these records was sent to sent to AHSGR village coordinator group. It is now posted on the new web site in the village records.

Click Here to Register for Treffen Tuesday

Visit AHSGR at RootsTech
2022-03-03 - 2022-03-05
Please visit AHSGR’s Virtual Exhibitor Booth at the 2022 RootsTech Conference.
Learn more about ASHGR and access free downloadable resources. Register for chance to win free AHSGR membership or other prizes. Click on this link to visit AHSGR in the Virtual Expo Hall: Link to AHSGR Booth
RootsTech is the largest, free, virtual genealogical conference in the world!
Registration is free at RootsTech 2022

AHSGR Book Club
2022-02-28 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago)
Please join us for our first book club on Zoom, February 28th at 7:00 CST!
Click Here to Purchase the Book
Click Here to Register on Zoom

Treffen Tuesday
2022-02-22 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Wayne Garman:
I am a native of Saskatchewan, Canada, with Germans from Russia ancestry in the Kutschurgan village of Elsass as well as the Mennonite colony of Chortitza. I hold a masters of history degree from Texas State University. The history of the Germans from Russia is one of my major research topics. I have presented at both GRHS & AHSGR conventions and write articles for publication. In 2018, I visited my ancestral villages in the Kutschurgan region of Ukraine as part of the North Dakota State University Homeland Tour. I am currently president of the Arizona Sun Chapter of Germans from Russia. I make my home in Glendale, Arizona and summer in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
“Go North Young Man: The remarkable story of Germans from Russia Immigration from the US to the Canadian Prairies – 1896 to 1914”
Many of our Germans from Russia ancestors emigrated to Canada after their initial settlement in the United States. Today, many Germans from Russia families have relatives on both sides of the border. Why did this pattern of immigration occur?? The Canadian west had been opened to settlement in the early 1870s, yet very few immigrants chose to make this region their home. My presentation will tell the remarkable story of why immigration from the US to the Canadian Prairies flourished during the years from 1896 to 1914. I will describe the geographic, economic, and political factors that each played a role in the immigration journey for many of our Canadian ancestors. I will also tell what attracted many Germans from Russia to move from the American Midwest to the Canadian prairies.

Treffen Tuesday
2022-01-25 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Russ Gunther, Volunteer “WikiTree” ambassador and Volga German sub-project coordinator. Russ attended Iowa State University where he studied Business Administration and minored in German. He spent a summer abroad studying German in Bregenz, Austria. He has worked as the volunteer Ambassador for “WikiTree” Volga German sub-project since January 2014. “WikiTree” project covers the Volga, Volhynian and Black Sea Germans.
Treffen Tuesday, January 25, 2022
During this presentation you will Learn about the world’s largest global family tree with collaborative design, photos with links to individuals and links to sites such as “FindAGrave” and various genealogical/research organizations, and so much more.
“WikiTree” is a free to view, free to create and research family tree, and includes a global connection to nearly 30 million profiles with 9,212,017 DNA test connections. The site is edited by more than 869,000 volunteers from around the world.
Join us for this look into one of the most exciting free resources for family connections and research.
Click Here to Register for Treffen Tuesday!

Treffen Tuesday
2021-10-26 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
“AHSGR Technology Strategy” presented by Bob Ahlbrandt

Treffen Tuesday
2021-09-28 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
“Through Grandfather’s Eyes – Postcards are a Window to the Past” presented by Duane Stabler

Treffen Tuesday
2021-08-31 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
“Caring for Rare and Historic Materials: An Introduction to Archival Practices and Basic Presentation” presented by Dr Ashley Todd-Diaz

Treffen Tuesday
2021-06-29 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
“German Lutherans in Central Siberia: St Mary’s Church in Tomsk as a Case Study” presented by Dr Alexey Streltsov

Treffen Tuesday
2021-05-25 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
“Traveling Back in Time: Using Historic Newspapers to Enhance Your Family Story” presented by Allyn Bronsz

Treffen Tuesday
2021-04-27 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
“The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection (GRHC) at North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo” presented by Michael Miller and Jeremy Kopp

Treffen Tuesday
2021-03-30 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
“Famous Germans From Russia” presented by Dr. Eric Schmaltz
