Journey to the Homeland: Odessa, Ukraine and Stuttgart, Germany

May 26 - June 7, 2002

Biographies of Tour Group Members

Ann (Meier) Bauer, Grand Forks, North Dakota
Ancestral Villages: Rosental (Crimea), South Russia

I was born in Napoleon, North Dakota, September 1931, the youngest of seven children born to John Meier and Rose (Kuhn) Meier. I graduated from high school in Napoleon in 1949. I married Ray Bauer on November 13, 1950. We had three children: Tim, who passed away in 1995, and Rita and Rhonda.

I lived in Napoleon until the death of my husband in 1983. I then moved to Grafton, North Dakota, to be close to my children. I worked at the Grafton State Developmental Center for 18 years. After retiring in October 2001, I moved to Grand Forks.

I well remember the many stories my parents told of the "old country." My parents worked hard all their lives as farmers near Napoleon. My mother often spoke of the hope to return to Rosental. She was never able to do that. I am looking forward to this tour so I can actually see what my parents spoke of.

Robert Otto Dambach, Fargo, North Dakota
Director of Programming & Production, Prairie Public Broadcasting

I was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1951, and received my bachelor's degree in communications at the University of Dayton, Ohio in 1973. I hold an M.A. degree in speech communication, radio, TV, and film from the University of Iowa and served as Assistant Instructor of Radio and TV in Wichita, Kansas, moving to Program Manager in 1976 to 1979. I have also served as Program Manager in Las Vegas, Nevada, and presently serve as the Program Manager and Producer of Prairie Pubic Television, KMUW.

In the past 5 years I have produced two major documentaries on the Germans from Russia, The Germans from Russia: Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie (1999) and Schmeckfest: Food Traditions of the Germans from Russia (2002), as well as Recipes from Grandma's Kitchen: Germans from Russia Food Preparations and Traditions, Volume I (2002). Presently I'm completing a documentary on Lewis and Clark in North Dakota and Germans from Russia Wrought Iron Crosses that will premiere in August 2002.

My hobbies are history, skiing and woodworking. I am married to my wife, Virginia, and have two daughters: Mary (18) and Jeanne (14). My heritage is German from my father's side and Irish from my mother's side.

Theresa (Meier) Eissinger, Napoleon, North Dakota
Ancestral Villages: Odessa, Ukraine; Rosental and Neusatz (Crimea), South Russia; Rohrbach and Johannestal, Beresan District

I was born March 19, 1929, in Napoleon, North Dakota, to John and Rose (Kuhn) Meier. I attended a one-room schoolhouse for the first eight years of school and graduated from Napoleon High School.

My parents were born in Russia. My father immigrated to the United States in 1907 from Odessa at the age of 21. My mother came to America in 1911 with her whole family, which included her parents, two brothers, four sisters, two nieces and three nephews.

My parents were farmers all their lives and I remember the hard times during the Depression. I am looking forward to visiting Rosental where my mother was born and Odessa, my father's birthplace.

Yvonne M. Eissinger, Edina, Minnesota
Ancestral Villages: Odessa, Ukraine; Rosental and Neusatz (Crimea), South Russia; Rohrbach and Johannestal, Beresan District

Three or four years ago I became interested in genealogy and decided to work on my maternal grandmother's family tree. Various family members had bits and pieces of information and I spent about one year contacting families from all branches of the tree. When I put all the information together, I had over 1,100 names.

My maternal grandmother's family, the Kuhns, lived in Rosental (Crimea), South Russia. I know they had emigrated from Germany to Russia in 1809. Unfortunately, I have not been able to determine where the family lived in Germany. In Rosental, the Kuhns were farmers and my great-grandfather also raised horses. The entire family, 16 members, left South Russia and came to the United States in 1911. They settled in Napoleon, North Dakota, and many family members live there still. My maternal grandfather, John Meier, left his home in Odessa and came to the United States by himself in 1907.

I know less about the Eissinger connection to South Russia. My paternal grandmother's family, the Langs, came from Neusatz, Crimea. The Eissinger family came from Rohrbach and Johannestal, both Beresan villages.

I was raised in Napoleon, North Dakota, and graduated from high school there. I attended the University of North Dakota's College of Nursing and some years later earned a master of science in adult psychiatric/mental health nursing from the University of Texas at El Paso. Recently I completed requirements for a clinical nurse specialist in psychiatry.

After finishing college in Grand Forks, I lived there another four years. I then spent 12 years in Fargo, working for the most part at the mental health center. In 1989, I moved to Edina, Minnesota, and currently I am working at Park Nicollet Clinic.

This trip has turned into a family reunion. I will be traveling with my mother, sister, aunt, two first cousins and two of my mother's cousins.

Dena (Marquart) Graham, Belvidere, Illinois
Ancestral Village: Burtschi, South Russia

I was born in Napoleon, North Dakota, on June 5, 1929, to George and Elizabeth (Kuhn) Marquart. My dad was born in Zeeland, North Dakota, on September 29, 1890. My mother was born on April 15, 1892, at Burtschi, South Russia, to Gottlieb and Marie (Bosch) Kuhn. She was 18 years old when the family left South Russia, immigrating to the United States and landing at Ellis Island in 1911. They settled in Emmons County at Linton, North Dakota, and later moved to a farm in Logan County at Napoleon, North Dakota.

I married Richard Graham on July 5, 1948. We have three children: Georgann, Rick and Kelly. Georgann and Kelly are teachers, and Rick is a pharmacist and also owns a farm. We have seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

I was employed by the Rockford Public School System as an instructor in the environmental education department for about 15 years. Later I opened a gift shop in 1981 and enjoy that immensely.

I am so thrilled so many of my Kuhn relatives are joining us on this trip, delights my very soul. Finally to walk in my mother's footsteps is a long awaited lifetime dream.

Glenn A. Isernhagen, Longmont, Colorado

I was born February 3, 1942, and grew up in the house of my grandpa, Georg Isernhagen, and his wife Elizabeth (Zweygardt) Isernhagen, built on the farm he homesteaded northwest of St. Francis, Kansas. My parents, Otto and Alice Isernhagen, were born four miles apart. They were baptized, confirmed and married by Pastor Otto Zeilinger at Salem Lutheran Church. The church was built by members of the Zweygardt and Raile clans who emigrated from Russia in the late 1800s. My great-grandfathers donated the land for the church. It was 100 years old in 2001 and is still active.

I grew up on the farm, the eldest of three, with my sister Maxine and my brother Fred. We milked cows on dairy route and raised wheat and feed for cows. I attended school from 1st grade through high school in St. Francis, Kansas, graduating in 1960. I played baseball, football and wrestled all through school becoming a state champion wrestler twice. I attended Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, on a football scholarship and graduated in 1964. I went onto Trinity Seminary (formerly Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary) in Columbus, Ohio. I married Louanne Theilmann on December 18, 1965, and graduated in 1968. I was ordained in Zion Lutheran Church in St. Francis in June 1968. Parishes I've served include Zion Lutheran in Scotland, South Dakota, from 1968-1972; Our Savior's Lutheran in Topeka, Kansas, from 1972-1983; Bethlehem Lutheran in Longmont, Colorado, from 1983-present.

I love to hunt elk in Colorado and pheasant and quail in Kansas. I enjoy travel abroad and have been to Germany several times to visit relatives on my grandpa Georg's side, taking my parents, wife, brother, son and nephew in 1996 on a "roots" trip. I love the high plains and would like to live on the farm in St. Francis someday-at least to keep it in the family until 2007 when it becomes a Kansas Centennial Farm.

Louanne (Theilmann) Isernhagen, Longmont, Colorado

I was born December 14, 1942, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Giles and Komora Theilmann. My paternal grandparents were Louis Theilmann and Jesse (Baugh) Theilmann of Missouri. Maternal grandparents were Allen Williams and Margaret (Charleton) Williams of Cameron, Missouri. None of them were from Russia. My ancestors were from Germany and Wales.

I grew up in Parkville, Missouri, until age three when we moved to nine acres in Tecumseh, Kansas, five miles east of Topeka on the Kansas River. I attended Tecumseh Grade School for eight years. I loved riding my pony, Goldie, and milking our dairy goats. I was active in 4-H and church. I attended Highland Park High School in Topeka from 1956-1960 and Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, from 1960-1964, where I received a bachelor of science degree in elementary education.

From 1964-1965, I flew as a flight attendant for TWA out of Chicago's O'Hare and Kansas City. I married Glenn Isernhagen, my college sweetheart, in Topeka at 1st Presbyterian Church on December 18, 1965. We spent our honeymoon on TWA passes in Cairo, Egypt; the Holy Land; Athens and Rome.

I have mainly worked as a homemaker, but also taught 2nd and 3rd grades, have been a school librarian and now am working part-time at the Longmont Public Library. I play violin, handbells and sing in the choir and women's trio at church. I love books, libraries, writing and animals. Glenn and I both love to travel and we just bought a condo along Fall River in Estes Park. We have two children: Jonathan (33) who lives in Dallas and Anne (29) who lives in Seattle. Our grandchildren are Evan (6) and Ben who will be one year old on May 1st.

Bernadine B. (Lang) Kuhn
Ancestral Villages: Glueckstal, Gueldendorf and Friedenstal, South Russia

I was born in Napoleon, North Dakota, Logan County, on January 21, 1943. Mrs. Thomas (Helen) Schwartzenberger was the midwife attending the delivery process. My parents are Theodore and Louise (Gums) Lang who farmed in Kidder County (Peace Township) in rural Tappen, North Dakota. The farm was homesteaded by Christian and Christina (Rott) Roesch Roesler in 1906.

Christian and Christina Roesler were immigrants from Glueckstal, South Russia. They immigrated to the United States in 1905, on the passenger ship Kaiser Wilhelm. My grandmother, Rosina (Roesch) Lang, was born in 1897 and was a young child about eight years of age when she immigrated with her parents Christian and Christina Roesler.

My grandfather, Frederich Lang, immigrated to the United States in 1907 at age 14 on a freighter ship with his parents. Karl and Elizabeth (Humann) Lang emigrated from Friedenstal, South Russia. Karl and Elizabeth homesteaded property in Kidder County (Peace Township), also in rural Tappen, North Dakota.

My maternal grandparents, Phillip and Elizabeth (Maier) Gums, emigrated from Gueldendorf, South Russia, in 1910. They homesteaded in Logan County at Napoleon, North Dakota. My mother, Louise (Gums) Lang was the second child born to Phillip and Elizabeth (Maier) Gums in America.

Alice Ann (Meier) Lippert, Burke, Virginia
Ancestral Villages: Black Sea villages

I was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, on July 26, 1952. My parents are John and Katherine (Meier) Lippert, who are no longer living. My father passed away in 1979 and my mother in 1998. Katherine Meier was born June 27, 1919, in Napoleon, North Dakota, daughter of John and Rose (Kuhn) Meier. Both Rose and John came from the Black Sea area. John Lippert was born on May 27, 1916, in Wishek, North Dakota. He is the son of Mathias and Caroline (Deibert) Lippert, who were also born in the Russian Black Sea area.

I have one younger brother, John Lippert, who currently resides in Bismarck, North Dakota. My older half brother, Nicky Meier, resided in Napoleon and passed away in 2000.

I attended grade school in Burnstad and Wishek, and junior high and high school in Napoleon. I graduated in 1970 and attended the University of North Dakota where I received a bachelor of arts degree in German literature. After working for a couple years, I decided to obtain a graduate degree. So in 1977, I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, to attend the University of Wisconsin. I earned a master of science degree in consumer economics in 1979.

After graduate school, I moved to Washington, D.C., where I accepted a position with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I am currently employed with the U.S. Department of Energy. I am married to John Facada (1977) and have two children: Katie (18) and Kyle (14).

Michael M. Miller, Fargo, North Dakota
Ancestral Villages: Straßburg, Kutschurgan District; Krasna, Bessarabia

Michael writes, "My first visit to the villages of Straßburg and Krasna in June of 1994 is an experience I shall never forget. I was especially touched by the warmth and friendship of the local villagers. I returned to Odessa and to the home of the late Antonina (Welk) Ivanova in the village of Selz in December 1995."

Michael was raised in Strasburg, North Dakota, learning to speak English and German. His college degrees are from Valley City State University and the University of North Dakota. He has been on the North Dakota State University Libraries staff since 1967, where he compiled the annotated bibliography, Researching the Germans from Russia, published by the Institute of Regional Studies, NDSU, 1987.

He serves as Bibliographer of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries. Since 1999, he has been an executive producer for Prairie Public Television documentaries including the award-winning The Germans from Russia: Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie (1999), Schmeckfest: Food Traditions of the Germans from Russia (2000); also Recipes from Grandma's Kitchen: Germans from Russia Food Preparations and Traditions, Volume 1 (2002) and Germans from Russia Wrought Iron Crosses (2002). He has visited Odessa and the former German villages each year since 1994 to 2003.

Cora (Wietgrefe) Raugutt, Casper, Wyoming

Ray did a good job including me in his biographical sketch, but I will try to add a little more information.

We have been doing family research for only two and a half years but are hooked on genealogy. As my ancestors came directly from Germany, we hope to stay in Germany for awhile after the tour and do some research there. I have been in touch with some families with my surname of Wietgrefe and hope to make some family connection.

One of my cousins lays claim to the Neuschwanstein castle, but even though I fear she is incorrect, I still hope to visit there. Neuschwander was my mother's maiden name.

My life has been a series of wonderful experiences: living in the beautiful western U.S. for 45 years, working in national parks, meeting many relatives in North Dakota, Minnesota, Oregon and Iowa that I never knew existed until after retirement and traveling throughout the U.S. I am looking forward to the next trip - the Homeland Tour of 2002.

Raymond L. Raugutt, Casper, Wyoming
Ancestral Villages: Leipzig and Beresina, Bessarabia

I was born on my parents' homestead near Mobridge, South Dakota, on December 26, 1932. My parents were Michael and Paulina Raugutt. My dad was born in Leipzig, Bessarabia and came to the U.S. with his parents at the age of seven. My maternal grandparents, Joseph and Karalina Frigen, came from Beresina, Bessarabia.

I attended school in Mobridge, South Dakota, and graduated from Northwestern Lutheran Academy (high school). I served in the U.S. Air Force for four years after high school as a B-36 mechanic.

Following my discharge I married my high school sweetheart, Cora Wietgrefe, from Ipswich, South Dakota. We moved to Missoula, Montana, where I attended the University of Montana receiving a bachelor of science degree in forestry in 1959. I worked as a forester, specializing in timber management, for 30 years with the U.S. Forest Service with periods of duty on the Nez Perce National Forest at Grangeville, Idaho; Lolo National Forest near Missoula, Montana; Kootenai National Forest at Fortine, Montana, and Idaho National Forest at Priest Lake, Idaho.

Prior to our marriage, Cora taught school on an Indian reservation in Arizona. While our children were young she was a mother and housewife, but did much volunteer work with the school systems. Once our children were grown she worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 13 years.

After retiring in 1988, Cora and I began working seasonally in the national parks. We worked five summer seasons in Yellowstone National Park, one winter in Big Bend National Park in Texas, and two winters in Death Valley, California.

We have two grown children, both living in Casper, Wyoming. Dale is an electrical engineer with Pacific Power and Light and Debra is a CPA with an accounting firm.

I am looking forward to visiting the two villages where my ancestors lived. Cora is also of German descent and hopes to do some genealogy research on her ancestors in Germany.

Dr. Harley Roth, Northern California
Ancestral Villages: Glueckstal, Beresan, Odessa and possibly Volga villages

All four of my grandparents are Germans from Russia, emigrating from Glueckstal, Beresan, Odessa and possibly Volga villages. They settled as dry-land farmers, had large families and carved a living from the rolling hills of northeastern (Keota) Colorado, Java and Long Lake, South Dakota and Ashley, North Dakota.

I was born in Greeley; my parents were farmers during the Depression. We later moved to Stockton, California during the war. At the age of six, I remember my father selling our furniture and other possessions at auction, and we drove to California in the dead of winter in a '32 Model A Ford. My dad went to work in the shipyards and later became a heavy-duty equipment mechanic. As a homemaker, my mother raised three sons and supplemented our family income with seasonal work.

The work ethic and family values (and good teachers) influenced me to become the first to graduate from college by working my way through school. My wife, Eleanor, and I married and we have three children and six grandchildren. I started my 25-year public education career as a teacher and principal before Sputnik. In 1969, I received a fellowship from the Mott Foundation and Michigan State University; Eleanor and I were graduate students together. In the spring, she completed her master's degree in library science (U of M) and I completed the doctorate (MSU) later in the summer. My career continued at MSU and later Virginia Tech, teaching at the master's and doctoral level. Later, I returned to my public school career as a superintendent of schools (in New Jersey) and then we returned to California.

After five years of coordinating programs with school districts, industry and various government agencies in Santa Clara Valley, my career goals changed. I began consulting in strategic planning and management training in the high tech industries here in Silicon Valley. Out of those experiences, I did the entrepreneurial thing...raised venture capital and started a software company developing and marketing educational and industrial training products. I have continued consulting and teaching college courses in management, personnel, research, health services administration and marketing. Completing my 45th year of teaching this year, I am currently adjunct professor of marketing in the MBA program at Golden Gate University in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and the greater Bay Area.

Hobbies include traveling, building and woodworking, gardening and reading. As a family, we have lived and taught in the inner cities of the North, the coal mining areas of the South, the suburbs (and resort communities) of the East and the agricultural and high tech regions of the West. We have traveled to Spain, England, Greece, Mexico, the Caribbean and throughout the U.S. and Canada over the years. My wife, an avid family history researcher, retires as a public school librarian this spring. We plan to live in Arizona in the winter and Northern California in the summer, where I'll continue to teach for GGU. We'll enjoy our children and grandchildren, travel, continue our hobbies and research our family heritages together.

Rev. Delbert Sailer, Thiensville, Wisconsin
Ancestral Villages: Bestrek, Friedental, Kronental, Sochta-Er, Lesy, Meschen

I was born June 9, 1943, in Beulah, North Dakota. My grandparents on my father's side were German-Russians. Grandfather Peter Sailer was born in Bestrek, Crimea. My grandmother, Margaretha Sailer (nee Morast) was born in Meschen, Crimea. My father George was born in Lesy, Crimea. My father came to America with his parents in 1906. He came with his father, mother and nine brothers and sisters. Upon their arrival in America they settled about 10 miles north of Hazen, North Dakota. My father would later buy a farm adjacent to my grandfather's farm. My mother was also of German background, but not German-Russian. She was the daughter of the Lutheran minister in Krem, North Dakota.

I was the youngest of 12 children and lived on the farm until I was in the fifth grade when my parents retired from farming and moved to Hazen. While living on the farm I went to a one-room school about a mile from the farm until I was in third grade. The school I was attending closed and so I had to ride my horse to another one-room school about four miles from our farm. I enjoyed the one-room school experience. I also enjoyed growing up on a farm in a large family. I was too young to be a part of the threshing crews, but I remember them. I especially enjoyed the huge dining room table filled with relatives and neighbors eating and recalling the day's events. I also remember that relatives, uncles, aunts and cousins would often visit on weekends. The children would play outside, and the adults would sit around the living room and visit. It was then that I would often hear stories of the homeland.

After we moved to Hazen I attended school there. It was something of a shock to be in a classroom with 30 other students. I graduated from Hazen High School in 1961. Upon graduation I moved to Rapid City, South Dakota, to work during the summer months with some of my brothers who were in the construction and painting businesses. It is there that I met my wife Shari Wickard. We were married in 1964. I received my bachelor of arts degree from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, in 1965. I then went to Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, and received my master of divinity degree in 1970. Upon graduation from the seminary, I received a call to be the pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Cuba City, Wisconsin. I served that parish and Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Wisconsin in Platteville until 1978. While I was campus pastor I did some reading on my German-Russian heritage.

I then received the call to be the senior pastor at Norway Lutheran Church in Wind Lake, Wisconsin. I served that congregation from 1978 to 1993. Norway Lutheran has the distinction of being the oldest Norwegian Lutheran Church in the United States. In 1993, I then received the call to Grace Lutheran Church in Thiensville, Wisconsin, and am still serving this congregation.

We have two children. David is in marketing at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, and Jon is a therapist supervisor at an autistic center in the Twin Cities.

I am excited about the trip to the homeland.

Shari L. (Wickard) Sailer

I was born on July 5, 1943, in Edgely, North Dakota. My father was of German background; my mother was English. My father was in the service when I was born, and when he returned we moved to Rapid City, South Dakota. Throughout my growing up years we lived in various parts of the country: Sioux City, Iowa; Woodstock, Illinois; and Fairfield, California. Mainly I would look upon Rapid City as my hometown. I graduated from Rapid City High School in 1962.

I met my husband Dell in Rapid City. We were married in 1964. I received my associate degree from the University of Wisconsin in Waukesha. Then I attended Holy Redeemer College near Waterford, Wisconsin, and received my bachelor of arts degree in 1985.

Neither of my parents are of German-Russian background, but I have gotten to know the culture well through Dell and his eight brothers and three sisters. We have traveled overseas before, and I have enjoyed it each time. We have been to Israel twice, London once and El Salvador once. I enjoy traveling with a group. I love to read, and Dell and I have belonged to a book club for 20 years. I also enjoy singing in the choirs at church.

I worked for six years as a pre-school teacher, but when we moved to Thiensville, I began work with Kid's Kingdom in day care in the infant room. I have always enjoyed children. I especially like my three grandchildren Ethan, Elijah (both from China) and Olivia.

I look forward to the trip and meeting new people.

Joyce A. (Eissinger) Sieckert, Edina, Minnesota
Ancestral Villages: Odessa, Ukraine; Rosental and Neusatz (Crimea), South Russia; Rohrbach and Johannestal, Beresan District

I was born in 1955 in Napoleon, North Dakota, to Theresa and Reinhold Eissinger. I have one sister, Yvonne, who is also on this trip.

I graduated from high school in 1973 and attended the University of North Dakota. I graduated with a degree in elementary music and elementary education and taught at Grand Forks Air Force Base for three years. I then moved to Minneapolis and earned a master's degree in special education from the University of Minnesota. I have worked at the Carver-Scott Educational Cooperative for 19 years, where I have taught in special education, vocational education and adult education. I currently supervise programs for youth at risk, adult education and English as a second language. In 1993, I married Steve Sieckert.

I am traveling with my sister, mother, aunt, two cousins and two of my mother's cousins. My sister's research on our family has generated a great deal of curiosity about our heritage. I am looking forward to visiting the homes of my mother's parents, as well as my father's parents.

Leila M. (Sailer) Simpson, Kirtland, Ohio
Ancestral Villages: Bestrek, Friedental, Kronental, Sochta-Er, Lesy, Meschen

I'm interested in this trip because my father lived as a lad in Germany and then Russia. He spoke of both places, and I would like to know more about them. My mother was of German descent also. She was the daughter of a Lutheran minister who had moved to the Hazen-Krem area from Canada.

I was born in Hazen, North Dakota, the tenth child in a family of twelve. There were nine boys and three girls (of which I was the youngest). We grew up on a farm about 10 miles north of Hazen. I attended a rural school my first eight years, starting first grade at age five. Then I was off to high school and after that, six weeks of summer college at Wartburg in Waverly, Iowa. I then taught at a rural school at the age of 16. After one year of teaching there I went back to Wartburg and got my bachelor of science degree. I then went to Cleveland to teach. I taught school in Cleveland for a few years, then became a secretary and retired four years ago.

I met my husband in Cleveland. He was a firefighter. We have four daughters and five grandchildren. My husband died in 1995. I now baby-sit my three-year-old granddaughter, and I am a hostess at a restaurant. Whenever possible, I travel. Am really looking forward to this trip!

Janice Ann (Marquart) Spotts, Portland, Oregon
Ancestral Village: Burtschi, South Russia

I was born Janice Ann Marquart on March 23, 1937, in Napoleon, North Dakota. My parents were George and Elizabeth (Kuhn) Marquart. My dad was born in Zeeland, North Dakota, in 1890. My mother was born in Burtschi, South Russia, in 1892.

Every time my mother spoke of Russia she would speak so highly of the fruit they picked near the Black Sea. When they came over through Ellis Island she was 18 years old. They first moved to Linton, North Dakota, where they had relatives. Then Grandpa bought a farm at Napoleon and that became our hometown.

I'm the youngest of five daughters. I graduated from Napoleon High School then became a registered nurse. I was married then divorced after we moved to Portland, Oregon. I worked at Oregon Health Sciences University (medical school) for my entire nursing career. I have one daughter Kim, a son-in-law Jon, and two beautiful grandchildren, Jimmy and Emily.

After retiring from nursing, I opened a gift shop called George "E." Marquarts,' in Sherwood, Oregon. What fun! I enjoy doing crossword puzzles and working in my yard and am anxiously awaiting this tour to Russia.

Catherine (Kempf) Vogele, Rapid City, South Dakota

Kenneth for Cathy: Catherine was born on October 21, 1942, in Nespelem, Washington, on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation where her father was a physician in IHS. Her father, Terrence Kempf, is of German descent although not via Russia. Catherine moved to Omaha when only a few years old. She was raised Catholic (as bad as being German); her mother raised eight children. Catherine completed her RN degree about 1963 and helped put her husband through medical school. She moved to Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1975 and raised two children: Gretchen (32) and Brendan (28). The only nursing care she provides now is for family and friends; as I write this, she is currently in Omaha caring for her mother and sister.

Catherine owned and operated the Sioux Trading Post in Rapid City from 1986-1993. Her interests are reading, grandkids, Indian art (especially "kids' stuff"). She is more interested in contemporary things than her husband. When not helping family and friends, Catherine's main job is keeping her husband happy.

Dr. Kenneth Allen Vogele, Rapid City, South Dakota
Ancestral Villages: Glueckstal, Neu-Glueckstal

I was born on May 1, 1944, in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised in Aberdeen, South Dakota, from the age of four onwards. My father, Cleo Leo Vogele, was a physician and surgeon. His father, Christian, and mother, Fredericka Schumacher, were from Glueckstal and Neu-Glueckstal respectively. Dad owns Christian's homestead near Lowry, South Dakota.

I am a gastroenterologist, practicing in Rapid City, South Dakota, since 1975. I have two children: Gretchen who is 32, married with two-year-old twin boys and teaches English as a second language; Brendan who is 28, single and does computer networking.

My interests are Northern Plains Indian history and art, the literature of James Willard Schultz and a latent interest in genealogy through the years. I only really began researching family history in March 2001. I feel somewhat inadequate making this trip now but the opportunity is too great to pass up.
Glueckstal Memorial Dedication Tour Group
May 22 - May 28, 2002

Oskar and Helma (Seefried) Eberle
Ancestral Villages: Marienberg, Eigenfeld, Hoffnungstal, Schönfeld

Oskar Eberle and his wife, Helma (Seefried) Eberle, were both born in the Odessa Oblast, Ukraine (South Russia). Helma was born in Marienberg (Nagornoje), a daughter colony of Bergdorf near Krasny Okny, in 1938. This was only a few months after the Bolsheviks took away her father, Emanuel Seefried, never to be heard from again by his wife, Karoline Huft, and their six children. Emanuel Seefried was the youngest brother of Janice Huber-Stangl's maternal grandmother, who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1899. Oskar was born in the village of Eigenfeld (Sachanskoje), a short distance north of Hoffnungstal (Zebrikovo), Odessa, which was the home of his mother's family. Oskar's father's family came from the colony of Schönfeld (Koschary), near Rasdelnaja, Odessa.

The German Army evacuated both of their families from Ukraine in March 1944 to the Warthegau in Occupied Poland. There they applied for German citizenship. In January 1945, at the end of
WWII, they had to flee again to the West in front of the advancing Soviet Army, to the vicinity of Berlin. In 1945 both families were deported to the USSR, to Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains, remaining in guarded barracks until 1959. Oskar and his family moved to Tajikistan, where Helma joined Oskar as his bride and where their two daughters were born. Oskar worked as a chauffeur for the local commissar, and Helma was a crane operator. In November 1972, they were able to immigrate via Moscow to Germany, settling in the Stuttgart area. They currently live in Weissach, near Leonberg, Germany. Over the later years, Oskar and Helma's siblings also have been able to leave the USSR and resettle in Germany. This trip to Ukraine will be Oskar and Helma's first visit to their home villages since 1944.

Margaret Ann (Aman) Freeman, Redondo Beach, California
Ancestral Villages: Bergdorf, Glueckstal, Kassel, Neudorf (Glueckstal District) and daughter colony Marienberg north of Kassel near the Kutschurgan River

Margaret writes, "I was born on an Iowa farm where I spent my early years in the corn fields, attended rural school and did all the things growing up that were typical of the thirties and forties. The church, which my grandparents had founded, was over the hill on the same section as our farm, and we lived on part of the land that Grandfather Zimmerman had been able to purchase with his hard work and frugal ways. Born to older parents who were each the youngest child born late in life to their parents, the 58 cousins on the Zimmerman side and the 58 cousins on the Aman side (with the exception of two) were all older than my sister and I. We did not lack for playmates or activities, and a goodly part of this activity was work.

At the age of 12, my confirmation year, we moved into the town of Monticello where I participated in many activities in high school. After that I attended a small girls' school, Shimer College in
Mt. Carroll, Illinois, and then went on, with the help of scholarships, to Linfield College in Oregon. From there I went to the University of Hawaii for graduate work in sociology, aided by funds from a graduate assistantship. There I met my husband Bob (see below) at Graduate Club. After our two sons were in school, I took the necessary courses for a teaching credential at USC and am now retired after 23 years in the Santa Monica Elementary Schools.

Growing up among my father's North German family, there was little contact during the Depression and the war years with Mother's Germans who lived nearly a thousand miles away. It was not until much later, when Aberle's book became known, and even later, when we attended an AHSGR meeting in 1978, that I really began to learn about my rich heritage in the Germans from Russia. One of the greatest things was to discover all this before my mother died. We attended conventions for several years together, and I was able to put the history book on the Aman family in her hands before she died. Incidentally, that was the first computer printed family history book in the library of either GRHS or AHSGR.

At threshing time, when the hired men ate elsewhere with the threshing crew, Mother would cook Käse Knipfle for herself and her nieces. Of course we always had Kuchen with prunes and apples, absolutely delicious. Our food likely had the Germans from Russia seasoning, which I never thought much about. And of course we ate borscht, which we called vegetable soup.

In the late eighties, some friends and I started the Glückstal Colonies Research Association, deciding to research all the inhabitants of Bergdorf, Glückstal, Kassel and Neudorf. We were fortunate to have Gwen Pritzkau's considerable help, since her husband Julius has ancestry in Kassel (see Gwen below). We were also fortunate to have found Carolyn Wheeler, who is competent in publishing and proofreading and who we now realize is also a cousin.

Our group has grown and is an amazing collection of very dedicated workers. Under the direction of Harold Ehrman, we have published the Glückstal Colonies Births and Marriages and Glückstal Colonies Deaths and have extended plans to publish Glückstal Colonies Families. Much of the data is already in GEDCOM format, thanks to our many industrious researchers. GCRA has been successful in putting many families together and finding cousins on many continents with the help of the computer. We have been able to meet our goal of uniting families."

Robert A. Freeman, Redondo Beach, California

Bob writes, "I was born in Pasadena, California. As a boy I worked for my father, a landscape gardener who supervised the creation of the Kellogg Arabian Horse Farm in Pomona, California, among other projects in Southern California. During summers I worked at the Caltech Marine Laboratory in Corona del Mar, California. After serving in the U.S. Army, I graduated from UCLA in biology and education and took advanced work in tropical soils in Hawaii and landscape architecture at Harvard University. In the 1960s, I studied and then taught computer programming at System Development Corporation in Santa Monica, California, and later served on the corporate staff from which I retired as Director of Technical Information.

Since retirement in 1986, I have developed an interest in family history research and am active in computer and communications technology as it relates to group research activities. I am a founding participant of the Glückstal Colonies Research Association and am currently responsible for its computer facilities and services."

Margaret Freeman (see above) writes about her husband Bob, "Bob and I were married in graduate school and then went to live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Bob continued his studies at Harvard. We lived in Lexington for several years, had a son, Bill, and returned to California to live near Bob's parents. Bob took a job with System Development Corporation and we settled in Santa Monica where we lived for 36 years, 35 in the same house. Another son, George, was born in Santa Monica and we feel fortunate that both boys went all the way through the Santa Monica school system while we were living at the same address."

Elaine M. (Job) Klusman
Ancestral Villages: Ottersheim Pfalz; Neudorf, Glueckstal District

My great-grandparents came from the Ottersheim Pfalz area and settled in the Neudorf area. My grandparents lived in the Glueckstal area and came to America in 1897 when my father was under one year old. They settled south of Tappen, North Dakota.

My mother and father were married and moved to Jamestown, North Dakota. Father died in 1937. I graduated from Tappen High School and Bismarck Hospital School of Nursing then worked two years before marrying Roger W. Klusman. After our family was raised, I became an EMT on the New Salem Ambulance Squad for 10 years. I was church organist for 23 years and at present am teaching a high school Sunday school class. I think I am the first in the extended family to visit Neudorf.

Roger W. Klusman
Ancestral Villages: Neudorf, Glueckstal District

I am a partly retired dairyman from New Salem, North Dakota. I have spent my whole life in this occupation, with the exception of spending two winter quarters at North Dakota State University. I am still milking part-time in the evenings for our two sons, who now own the farm.

My grandfather, Charles Klusman, Sr., emigrated from Bueramt Melle Hannover, Germany, to Mexico, Missouri in 1883. He farmed with a brother until 1900 when he moved his family to our farm, "The Klusman Stock Farm," located north of New Salem, North Dakota. He married Anna Gaebe from Addieville, Illinois.

My father, Charles A. Klusman, Jr., married Florence Wildy of New Athens, Illinois. At this time they took over the home farm. They started selling grade-A bottling milk in Bismarck in 1939 to the same spot that our sons are selling to today. All four of my parents and grandparents lived to be in their nineties.

In 1952 I married Elaine Job of Jamestown, North Dakota, and took over the Klusman Stock Farm, raising registered Holsteins and registered Columbia sheep. We have five children, eight grandchildren, and one black lab named George. We are members of the United Church of Christ. I love animals, trees and also do some hunting.

Timothy A. and Judith (Anderson) Klusman, Dubuque, Iowa
Ancestral Village: Neudorf, Glueckstal District

Tim writes, "I was born in 1953 in Bismarck, North Dakota, to Roger W. and Elaine (Job) Klusman. My family has dairy farmed near New Salem, North Dakota, since the early 1900s. After graduating from New Salem High School, I studied diesel mechanics at North Dakota State School of Science in Wahpeton, North Dakota. From there I returned to farm with my parents. In 1977, I married Judy Anderson from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and we continued to farm with my parents until 1979 when we moved to Judy's home farm in Wisconsin. We dairy farmed there until January 1999. Then we sold the herd and I began driving truck over the road. Judy and I now live in Dubuque, Iowa, where she is going to school. Next year we will be in Fort Morgan, Colorado, where she will be serving her internship in the Lutheran Church.

This will be my first trip to Europe and my ancestral homeland. I am excited that Judy and I will be sharing this experience with my parents. We have two sons: Charles (23) studying elementary education at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and James (19) studying aviation at the University of Dubuque in Dubuque, Iowa."

Judy writes, "Wisconsin has been my home for most of my life. I was born in Neenah, Wisconsin, and raised on the family dairy farm near Oshkosh. After graduating from Winneconne High School, I attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, for two years. It was during this time that Tim and I began dating. After living in North Dakota for 18 months, we returned to Wisconsin. Both of our sons were born in Neenah at the same hospital I was born in. My family started our farm in 1853 when my great-great-grandfather, Ole Anderson, came from Norway. When our boys decided they didn't want to pursue farming as their careers, Tim and I decided it was time for a change in our lives. After farming and serving 12 years in the Wisconsin State Assembly, I am now a student at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, studying to be a pastor in the Lutheran Church. Interestingly, my journey to seminary started in Ukraine when I was doing volunteer work near Kharkiv through the Farmer to Farmer Program in 1997.

This will be my fifth trip to Ukraine and the first to my husband's ancestral village in Neudorf. On previous trips I fell in love with Ukraine and the warm and loving people that I met there. I am very excited about sharing this trip with my family and all of you and am looking forward to getting to know the wonderful people in the Black Sea area."

Gwen W. Pritzkau, Riverton, Utah
Ancestral Villages: Bergdorf, Glueckstal, Kassel, Neudorf (Glueckstal District)

Gwen was born and raised in Utah. She is the wife of Julius Pritzkau, who was born and raised in North Dakota. She writes, "We share the same children and grandchildren." Almost all German-Russian convention attendees know Gwen as a lady of great genealogical information. She was a cataloging specialist for the Salt Lake County Library System for more than 25 years. After retiring from her position at the library, Gwen is now volunteering at the Utah State Prison as the director of a project teaching the old German script to the inmates so they can extract the St. Petersburg records of all the Lutheran Germans inside the western portion of the Russian Empire. She joking says she is "doing '5 to life' with no chance of parole." Her background is Danish but her love and interest in the German-Russian people has been of great importance in her life.
Janice Huber-Stangl and Thomas Stangl, Sterling, Virginia
Ancestral Lands and Villages: Baden-Württemberg, South Prussia, Bessarabia, Glückstal, Kassel, Odessa, Nesselrode and Neu-Beresina

Janice Huber-Stangl was born, raised and educated in Edmunds County, South Dakota, and attended Northern State College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, completing an associate degree in elementary education. Her ancestors originated primarily from Baden-Württemberg and were colonists in South Russia in the early 19th century, immigrating to the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her paternal ancestors were colonists in Ukraine, emigrating from Glückstal and Kassel. Her maternal ancestors were colonists in South Prussia and Bessarabia and later in Odessa, in the villages of Nesselrode and Neu-Beresina. Jan has close relatives, currently living in Germany near Stuttgart, who lived in the Glückstal District until the Umsiedlung (evacuation) in 1944.

Jan and her husband, Thomas Stangl, have three children and three grandchildren. Jan is currently retired from teaching elementary and musical education, travels extensively with Tom and is actively involved in many aspects of genealogical research for her family, as well as Germans from Russia in general. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS). She is a Village Coordinator (VC) for several villages for GRHS and the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR). She is a life member of both GRHS and AHSGR, as well as a member of the Glückstal Colonies Research Association (GCRA). Jan has kept her childhood Schwäbisch dialect and continues to improve her German language capabilities. She is co-author of the book Marienberg, Fate of a Village, co-published in May 2000 (in German and English in one volume) by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries and GCRA. Marienberg was a daughter colony of Bergdorf in the Glückstal District.

Thomas Stangl is not of Germans from Russia ancestry, but he had the good sense to marry someone who is (so says Margaret Freeman). Tom's ancestry is Austrian/Pomeranian and Irish/English. He was born in Bowdle, South Dakota, and grew up on a farm near Java, South Dakota. He attended a rural one-room school and then attended high school in Java and Bowdle, graduating from Bowdle. He received a degree in animal husbandry from South Dakota State University and has taken graduate school courses at George Washington University, Washington, DC, and the University of Virginia. Tom began his government service career in 1957 with the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, on the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. He was also stationed at the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservations in Colorado, as well as the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. In 1970, Tom accepted a position at the Bureau's central office in Washington, DC, as a program analyst. In 1987 he retired as the Assistant Director for Financial Management, having been Chief Budget and Program Planning Officer for the Bureau for over eight years.

Since Tom became actively involved in genealogical research with Jan, he has traced several branches of her family back to Germany to the early 1500s. Tom and Jan have published several short articles in the GCRA newsletter about some of these families. While Tom does not speak or understand much German, he can read all forms of old German script, as well as some Russian, Polish, French and Latin. Tom has not neglected his own families, but has had the good fortune of finding several "new" cousins who have done the research on several of them. Since shortly before Tom's retirement, Tom and Jan began to travel abroad, starting with a trip to England in 1985. They have since traveled to Western Europe many times, including trips to Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Ukraine and Moldova. They have also traveled to Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia; and closer to home, to Canada and Mexico.

In August 1997, Jan and Tom began their research of the Berlin Document Center (BDC) microfilms located at National Archives II, College Park, Maryland. These thousands of rolls of film include naturalization records (Einwandererzentralstelle--EWZ) for ethnic Germans who applied for German citizenship during the period 1939-1945. They have been able to find records for some of Jan's "lost" relatives who stayed in Old Russia during the American immigrations around the turn of the 20th century. They have continued to conduct BDC research for others seeking information about their own family or relatives. They posted a notice on the Odessa Digital Library and have received requests for assistance from all over the world. Especially gratifying has been being able to help several ethnic Germans still living in the former Soviet Union prove their German heritage, with the hope of being able to immigrate to Germany.