|  Marienberg:
Fate of a Village (Marienberg: Schicksal eines Dorfes)
By Johann Bollinger and Janice Huber Stangl, edited by Harold
M. Ehrman, Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota
State University Libraries, Fargo, 2000, 349 pages, English and
German, softcover and hardcover. (not available on interlibrary
loan)
Review by Dianne Ladd, Bakersfield, California (DLadd623@aol.com)
Family historians and genealogists will discover this book most
interesting and helpful. The introduction tells the history of Marienberg,
founded in 1861. The majority of Marienberg's first colonists came
from the villages of Glueckstal, Bergdorf, Neudorf and Kassel.
Following the historic narrative, the authors have written a brief
family genealogical history outlining the family pedigrees household-by-household.
The Berlin Document Center records were used to make this inhabitant's
listing for the colony of Marienberg. Each family listing is primarily
derived from the EWZ-Central Immigration Office Records. Every German
immigrant in the 1940's had to document his or her German lineage
before being reinstated as a German citizen. Some records, as filed
by each individual, are more complete than others; however, the
authors have attempted to complete each family pedigree using other
available sources.
Researchers of the Glueckstal colonists will find these family
records very valuable, when tracing family members who remained
in Russia. Many of us researching our families may not recognize
the need to complete the records of our distant cousins who remained
in Russia. However, many of these families have descendants who
have immigrated to Germany, during the past ten years and are now
searching for their relatives in North America. The Marienberg book
completes the link between Russia and North America for many of
these families.
The third portion of the book has reprinted letters written to
various German-language newspapers in North America. Each Marienberg
letter has also been translated into English. A personal, historic
insight into the life and times of Marienberg and its neighboring
colonies unfolds as the letters are read in chronological order.
These personal narratives can inspire, devastate, captivate and
inform the reader.
Not only are the letters an excellent source whereby daily-life
in the Russian villages is retold, but they are also of genealogical
significance. For example, on pages 151-152, there is a letter dated
13 February 1922. It first tells of the devastating famine gripping
the villagers and goes on to " praise the fortunate dead. I
will list them " The correspondent, Jakob Ahl, then lists many
of those who died within the last several years, including individuals
from several villages, not only Marienberg.
The family genealogical information, as accurate as it can be in
a personal letter, may be all that is available to us at this time.
Hence, the Marienberg book does oftentimes offer new and undocumented
data and insight into the life and times of our distant and not-so-distant
cousins who remained in Southern Russia.
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