August 10, 2005
Media Release

NDSU Libraries publishes new book on Kulm, Leipzig & Tarutino, Bessarabia
villages

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection is pleased to publish this important, impressive, and monumental 864-page hardcover book, "Extended Relationships of the Kulm, Leipzig and Tarutino Communities in Bessarabia, Russia" by Authur E. Flegel, Menlo Park, CA. Flegel introduces the book with an excellent history of Bessarabia and of the Bessarabian villages of Kulm, Leipzig and Tarutino.

There is a Preface for Genealogical Information and a Guide for Genealogical Information. The contents of the book covers thousands of family names beginning with Ackermann to Zynalewsky. There is a detailed Child Index of family names.

About the author

Arthur Edmund Flegel is the son of immigrant German Russian parents, Johann and Julianne (Pflugrath) Flegel, the ninth of ten children of whom six achieved adulthood. He was born in 1917 in the wheat fields of North Dakota and raised in the wheat fields of Kansas and the sugar beet fields of Colorado. As a youth, Arthur was intrigued with the realization that while his parents and their close friends claimed to be German, they readily admitted that Russia was their native country from where they had emigrated for the New World, especially the United States and Canada.

Arthur Flegel accumulated considerable genealogical data from a variety of sources including microfilms, periodicals, family histories and interviews, along with his mother's remarkable memory and basic information from Dr. Karl Stumpp. Using materials he had collected over the years, he published the Reuscher-Schnell Kinship book in 1975 relating to his wife's genealogy, and the Flegel-Pflugrath Kinship book in 1978 covering his own paternal and maternal lines.

Gathering the materials for both kinship books became a "once in a lifetime" experience in terms of Arthur and Cleora (Reuscher) Flegel's travels, which included interviews with many people, not only in the USA, but Canada, Germany, Russia, Argentina and Brazil. some of whom have become lasting friends.

These travels and interviews along with Arthur's God given ability to read the printed as well as handwritten old German, some times referred to as Gothic vs. the Latin in common usage today, became the overpowering influence to become a certified genealogist which culminated in a many years' effort in accumulating and transcribing genealogical and historical information for publication in a book covering some 28,000 individuals which comprises about 6,000 families directly or indirectly related to the communities of Kulm, Leipzig and Tarutino in the former Bessarabia.

It is his firm belief that his is an innate part of God's plan for his life and he offers his fervent hope and prayer that this work will be beneficial to many who desire to research and learn about their German-Russian connections.

Cost of the book is $65 plus $8 postage payable to NDSU Library. Mail to: Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, Kulm, Leipzig & Tarutino Book, NDSU Libraries, PO Box 5599, Fargo, ND 68105-5599. Website to order book: www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/order/general/extended.html.