 |
Location: America > United States
United States
While the Volga Germans share much in common with other Germans from Russia, they lived in
a separate region of Russia and in the United States they also tended to live in areas
separate from other Germans from Russia. Consequently the genealogical research of
Volga Germans varies greatly from that of other Germans from Russia.
The major employment of the Volga Germans in the USA were wheat farming,
railroads, sugar beet farming, factory work and other farming. For most
Volga Germans
there was somewhat continuous movement around the USA due to crop failures, territory
openings, railroad strikes or railroad extensions into new area, and new sugar refineries
with sugar beet farming opportunities. The Volga Germans who moved around the least were
factory workers that settled (and for the most part stayed) in areas such as Portland, OR,
Chicago, IL and Oshkosh, WI. In these areas their employment was in canneries, garbage hauling,
lumber factories (doors & sash) and automobile manufacturing. Some large railroad hubs
attracted large numbers of Volga Germans such as Topeka, KS.
Volga German Settlements in the USA and Canada tended to cluster in certain geographic areas
often closely related to wheat farming and sugar beet farming, as seen on the
settlement map. Clearly the Volga Germans populated just 4 areas of
the USA to any great degree.
- The central plains from southern Montana diagonal down through Wyoming, Colorado,
Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas.
- The Great Lakes area including Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Northern Ohio.
- The Northwest including northern Oregon and Washington.
- The central Valley of California around Fresno.
While there were a few smaller scatter groups in the North East, they accounted just for a very
small percentage of Volga Germans in the USA.
|
|
Search over 100,000 Germans from Russia who have been indexed by Gene Jenkins and some other members
of the Volga German mail list. These comprehensive indexes
focus on the geographic areas, generally entire counties,
in which Volga Germans lived. Because of the terrible misspelling in the census, and poor
handwriting, if you cannot find your ancestor, browse by county.
According to Richard Sallet in Russian-German Settlements in the United States
the German Russians from different areas of Russia, such as the Black Sea Germans,
Mennonites and Volhynian Germans settled in surprisingly different regions of the
USA and Canada than the Volga Germans.
This population table of Russian-German clearly illustrates the differences and surprising little overlap.
While there was certainly overlap in some areas,
particularly Eastern Washington, it was the exception. The Black Sea Germans as seen
in the documentary, Germans from Russia: Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie
settled primarily in North Dakota with 68,000 individuals in 1920 (first and second
generation) and South Dakota with 26,000. At that same time Volga Germans accounted
for just 600 people in each of those states. Conversely the Volga Germans had
approximately 19,000 people in each of the 3 states of Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas in
1920 and the Black Sea Germans no more than 2,000 in each state. Mennonites had
10,550 people in KS at that time.
Source: 1) Russian-German Settlements in the United States by Richard Sallet,
translated and edited by LaVern Rippley and Armand Bauer is available from
AHSGR. 2) German Volga mail
list subscribers
For each state, the Volga German villages represented there are listed. This list
was compiled by input from the member of the Volga German mail list.
There are many general purpose genealogical sites for research in the USA, sites such
as the Social Security Death Index on rootsweb or the Stephen P. Morse sites.
Links to many of these types of
sites can be found on the links page. Hidden Volga German
genealogical gems are highlighted on research gem page.
|
|
