Journey to the Homeland Tour – Ukraine & Germany

North Dakota State University Library sponsored tour

20 May – 30 May 2009

Biographies of Tour Group Members

Wanda Volk Archer, Walla Walla, Washington

Ancestral villages: Baden, Elsass, Kandel, Mannheim, Selz and Strassburg (Kutschurgan District)

This is a trip of a lifetime for me. I have always had an interest in my ancestors and found it to be very interesting that my ancestors on both sides of my family originate from the same villages within Russia.

My paternal Grandfather, Thomas Volk, was born in Russia and I hope to visit the area from which he came. On my mother’s side, my paternal and maternal great-grandparents immigrated to the USA. An interesting note is that both sets of my great-grandparents on my mother’s side were married in a double-ring ceremony, after arriving to America.

I was born and raised in North Dakota, on the farm where my father grew up. In 1990, I graduated from the University of North Dakota and moved to California. A short time later, I was offered a position with Microsoft and moved to Bellevue, Washington.

Currently, I live in Walla Walla, Washington with my husband John, who is a firefighter/paramedic with the City; Arón, 16-years-old, for whom we are surrogate parents; a dog and a cat. For the past 13 years, I have been self-employed as a Personal Financial Representative with Primerica Financial Services.

John and I keep busy by hosting high school international exchange students, helping my husband with his specialized after-market motorcycle parts business, and church activities.

I am looking forward to this travel opportunity as I want to learn more about my ancestors and the life they had in Russia. I am also looking forward to spending time with my Father, my Uncles David and Jim, and my Cousin Mary Ann and her husband, John, who will be traveling with me.

Leland (Lee) Bruch, Seattle, Washington

Ancestral villages: Alt Posttal (Maloiarochavets Pershyi); Kolatschowka (Kalachivka); Kulm (Pidhirne); Kurudschika (Sukhuvate) Bessarabia

I was born in 1944 and raised in Yreka, California and Hillsboro, Oregon. 

My ancestors on my father’s side left Germany in the 1700’s and immigrated to Pennsylvania then gradually to Indiana and California.  At about the same time, in the 1700’s, my wife’s maternal ancestors left Schwabia (Germany) to Poland, then eventually to Bessarabia and then to Canada.

I attended the University of Oregon, became an architect, and practiced architecture in Vancouver, Canada where I met Ginny, my wife.

In the late 1980’s we moved to Seattle where I am a project manager for hospitals and science research buildings.

I’ve been helping Ginny research her Bessarabian roots and am excited at visiting there.

Janet Damm, Pullman, Washington

Ancestral villages: Neu-Strymba, Kischinev Parish, Strymben, Alt-Sarata, Scholtoi

I am the one interested in family history in our family.  I am including the last half of this list (first half on Leroy’s Bio.) of relatives as well as friends who are all Germans from Russia in my husband’s northeast Montana family.  His grandparents happened to meet in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada around 1902.  Before they all moved to northeast Montana they tried farming in Rhine/Rhein, Saskatchewan. Around 1906.  Finally they homesteaded and farmed in Roosevelt, Co. Montana and descendants are living there today.  Two cemeteries in this area have Germans from Russia burials which I have listed on a couple Germans from Russia websites.  I am still trying to find out where in Germany these families migrated from.

Maul/Moll---
Ostwald---Rossoshi (Franzosen, canton-Balzer), Volga
Pope/Popp---
Ritter---Kishinev Parish, Bessarabia
Sackman---Langenfeld, Bessarabia
Saufield---
Sinner---near Schilling (Sosnowka, canton-Balzer), Volga (married a Miller)
Schledewitz---Jost (Popovkina, canton-Kukkus), Volga; Schilling (Sosnowka, canton-Balzer)
Schreiner---Schilling?
Smith/Schmidt---Dinkel (Tarlikowka, Oberholstein, canton-Kukkus), Volga
Teitz---Bessarabia
Wagner---Langenfeld; Frank, Volga. Neu-Strymba; Strembi; Kishinev Parish, Bessarabia

We have taken two previous genealogical trips.  To investigate my mother’s family we visited Belgium, Luxembourg, northern France and western Germany in 2000.  In 2002 we spent 10 days in Lithuania visiting the villages of my father’s father.

Leroy Damm, Pullman, Washington

Ancestral villages: Neu-Strymba, Kischinev Parish, Strymben, Alt-Sarata, Scholtoi

My wife does the family history but I am interested in the information and travel!  My parents are both Germans from Russia.  My mother’s ancestors are from Bessarabia/Moldova.  My father’s ancestors are all from the Volga River area.  The following list contains relatives as well as friends of my family from northeast Montana.  The other half of my name list is included in my wife’s biography.

Badt---Langenfeld
Brese---Konstantinowka (Kotschetnoje/Kopenka); Schilling (Sosnowka); Jost (Popovkina); Leobaskiner?, Volga
Burback---Hussenbach (Linevo Ozero, canton-Frank), Volga
Clippert---Walter (Greshchinnaya-Luka, canton-Frank), Volga
Damm---Konstantinowka (Kotschetnoje/Kopenka); Schilling (Sosnowka, canton-Balzer), Volga
Doll---Walter (Greshchinnaya-Luka, canton-Frank); Langenfeld, Volga
Eberling---Rosenfeld, Volga
Gerlach/Gerlock---
Green---Rosenfeld, Neu-Norka (Norka=canton-Balzer) Kamenka District, Volga
Gross---Neu-Strymba, Bessarabia
Heinrich---?
Hekkel---Jost (Popovkina, canton-Kukkus), Volga
Hochgenung---?
Hoffman---Uris River
Houck---
Hellinger---
Helmuth---Konstantinowka (Kottschetnoje/Kopenka), Volga
Kaufmann---Schilling (Sosnowka, canton-Balzer); Konstantinowka (Kottschetnoje/Kopenka); Eckheim, Volga
Lai---??? Schilling (Sosnowka, canton-Balzer) (good friends of Damms)
Liebrecht---Kolb (Pestowatka, canton-Frank); Brunnenthal, Volga
Luft---Schilling (Sosnowka, canton-Balzer), Volga
Mai---Kratzka (Potschinnaja, canton-Frank), Volga
Metzger---Stahl am Tarlyk (Stepnoje, canton-Kukkus), Volga
Miller---Schilling? (Sosnowka, canton-Balzer), Volga

Carol Marie Dobler Harris, Greensboro, North Carolina

Ancestral villages: Teplitz, Neu Teplitz, Arzis and Sarata, Bessarabia; Nesselrode

I grew up in Moscow, Idaho, the “middle child” of 3 children.  My dad worked as a professor at the University of Idaho, teaching business law and political science classes.  Gardening was his hobby.   My mom was a 4-H leader, Sunday school superintendent, volunteer, and later a state senator.

Growing up I was active first in Campfire Girls and then 4-H though through high school.  I loved going to the summer camps for these groups.  Every summer our family would go hiking and camping.  I went to college at the University of Idaho majoring in Pre-Physical Therapy.  But instead of going to Physical Therapy school, I got married. 

I spent several simmers on a remote forest service fire lookout with my husband and worked a year as a teacher’s assistant.  With the birth of our first child, I became a stay at home mom.  When our second child started kindergarten, I returned to college and got an ADN degree.  After a few years working as a pediatric nurse, I was again a stay at home mom with the arrivals of our third and fourth children.  During this time I was a 4-H co-leader and became a La Leche League leader.  I returned to work as an RN while we were living in Montana.  For the next 20 years I worked part or full time as a pediatric nurse while we lived in Montana, Oklahoma, and North Carolina.  September 2008 I retired at the age of 61.

Jon M. Ingenthron, Davis California

Ancestral villages: Kamenka, Volga Region

My great great grandfather, Dominic Ingenthron, his second wife and the four children of his deceased first wife sailed from a port in France to America on the HMS Hemisphere. They arrived in spring of 1853, along with his in-laws and other relatives. We have documents with some details.

All had left Bavaria and the towns of Wittenberg, Wurtemburg, Mundelsheim and others of various spellings for some compelling reason that we may never know, to start a new life.  They had worked as “farmers” and cigar makers and most likely a variety of general labor jobs. Not long after their arrival, Dominic and his oldest son enlisted in an Indiana Regiment to serve in the Civil War. Both survived.  Most of his direct descendants settled in Illinois and Wisconsin. The families of my father’s parents have been in the Appleton area since the early 1900s. My mother’s family has lived in “Pennsylvania Dutch Country” for many generations. Her roots also go back to Germany and many of the small towns in the center of the country.

Meanwhile, back in Bavaria, possibly in the late 1840’s Dominic’s brother, uncle or a cousin, we don’t know which left Bavaria for Russia with his wife and lived in Kamenka until the 1880s when they migrated to America and settled in the Topeka Kansas area. We are not sure if the Great Lakes area folks and Kansas folks ever found their common connections. Folk lore explains: because one group is Protestant and the other Catholic.

There is a third ‘clan’ of Ingenthrons in south central Missouri who in the 1850s were pioneers and homesteaders in and around Taney County. An original log cabin is still standing there and was occupied until a few years ago as well as an official Ingenthron Lane in the County records. My information is that they were related to the Great Lakes group as cousins. Several were postmasters and Elmo Ingenthron, superintendent of schools, published several books about the history of Missouri and its people.

Jim Ingenthron of South Dakota was very active in various German Historical Societies until about 10 years ago. We shared a deep interest in learning about the origins of our name, exchanged lots of information over the years. Professional researchers were hired but never solved the puzzle. The last time we spoke he said he was about ‘two names away’ from linking everyone with our name as a descendant of one person or place.  A census report of several years ago estimated that in the U.S. there were only about 100 households with our name. So, genealogy is one of my primary interests.

I have several interests in this trip one of which is to see the land in person. Outside the large cities I suspect the landscape is not much different from the way it always was and that might be true for some of the old villages. The history of my wife’s family goes to the Odessa area. As new information becomes available we hope to continue to study, learn and discover more of the missing pieces of the histories of our forefathers that we can pass along to the generations that follow.  

Mary Anne Ingenthron, Davis, California

Ancestral villages: Baden, Elsass, Kandel, Mannheim, Selz and Strassburg (Kutschurgan District)

My ancestral ties are to the families of the Volks and Lemaires of the Kurtschurgan region of Odessa.

My grandparents are Thomas Volk and Marcella (LeMaire) Volk. In 1903, when he was six years old, Thomas Volk immigrated with his parents and siblings from the Mannheim colony along the Dneister River in the Odessa region of Russia. His parents, Leon Volk and Walburga 
(Schatz) Volk of Mannheim, homesteaded on 160 acres in Orrin, North Dakota. Thomas Volk married Marcella LeMaire in 1920 and they settled in Webster, North Dakota, just north of Devils Lake where they raised 10 children.

Marcella (LeMaire) Volk was born in North Dakota in 1903.  Her parents, Michael LeMaire and Magdalena (Ehrestman) LeMaire, were from the Kandell colony in the Kutschurgan region of Odessa and immigrated to this country in 1901.

Walburga Volk, the oldest of 10 children of Thomas and Marcella Volk, was my birth mother. She married Kenneth Wallace in 1950 and raised a family on a farm in Webster, North Dakota.  I was raised by my adoptive family in California.  I went to Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, California, the University of Santa Clara and to grad schools at California State University Hayward and the University of Texas El Paso.  I have two daughters, Shanti and Monique, and am married to Jon Ingenthron, whose ancestors were Germans from Russian who settled in the Volga region.

I was happily reunited with my birth mother and father in 1991 and met the rest of my North Dakota relatives in 1993, including my grandmother Marcella LeMaire Volk who was 91 years old.  For the first time in my life I had answers to my ancestry.  It is with great passion and enthusiasm that I continue to learn more each year about my birth family roots and so look forward to expanding my understanding through this trip to the homeland.

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.  When I returned to Odessa, I visited the home of the late Antonia (Welk) Ivanova in the village of Selz in December 1995; where I completed a cassette tape interview in the German language.  Antonia died in October, 1998.”

Miller grew up speaking both English and German and became interested in the heritage, culture and history of his ancestors.  An important focus throughout Miller’s life and career has been the preservation and documentation of the rich heritage within the German-Russian community in North America.

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 and annotated bibliography, researching the Germans from Russia, published by the Institute of Regional Studies, NDSU, 1987.

He serves as Director and Bibliographer of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Library.  Since 1999, he has been an executive producer of 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); Germans from Russia Wrought Iron Crosses (2002); A Soulful Sound: Music of the Germans from Russia (2005); and We’ll Meet Again in Heaven (2005).  He has visited Odessa and the former German villages each year since 1994.  A complete biography is at: http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/biography.html. 

Miller writes, “My life long dream has been to keep alive and enhance the heritage of Germans from Russia.”

Sharon Dobler Vega, Boise, Idaho

Ancestral villages: Teplitz, Neu Teplitz, Arzis and Sarata, Bessarabia; Nesselrode

My father's story was that our ancestors left Germany to avoid military service, possibly with Napolean.  They stayed in Bessarabia as long as Russian rulers exempted them from serving there.

When the exemption was ended, my great-grandfather, Christian Dobler, with his wife and 8 children boarded a train for Germany.   They sailed on December 24, 1884 from Bremen on the ship "Hopsburg" bound for New York.  They farmed in North Dakota till 1889 and finally settled in Bethune, Colorado.  My Grandfather, Leopold (Lee), was the youngest child of that family.

When I was between the ages of about 5 and 10 my Grandfather lived with us. I used to beg him to teach me German.  He would not even answer.  He himself never spoke it except occasionally in his sleep.  I think that having lived in the U.S. through the two World Wars he had seen enough discrimination that he thought it better to avoid any apparent connection with Germany.  By the time he died Russia was the country people feared.  So in his obituary my father wrote that Grandpa was born in Poland instead of Russia.  It was the time of the Red Scare and Loyalty Oaths and my father was a college professor.

I grew up in Moscow, Idaho.  I lived there most of the time until 1972 when I moved with my family to Saipan, Mariana Islands.  My husband worked there helping with the development of modern agriculture. Later we spent 7 years in Ponape, Eastern Caroline Islands with the same
job.  In Ponape I taught in a Community College where English was the second language for all of the students.

Since returning to the U.S. I have taught science in public schools, ending with 10 years teaching high school chemistry.  I retired in 2008 with no particular plan in mind except to attend more birthdays and sporting events of grandchildren.  I am quite astonished to find myself signed up for this tour, which I learned about only 8 days ago from my sister, Carol Harris, who is also a tour member.

David Volk, Marionville, Missouri

Ancestral villages: Baden, Elsass, Kandel, Mannheim, Selz and Strassburg (Kutschurgan District)

We trace our ancestry back to the Odessa area of Russia, specifically the Mannheim Colony in the Kutschurgan Valley.  Our father arrived in the United States around 1902.  He arrived aboard the ship SS Lungania and entered the US via Canada.  Thomas was about six years of age and was accompanied by his father, Leon, and his mother, Walburga nee Schatz, four sisters and four brothers.  The family settled on 160 acres five miles west of Orrin, North Dakota.  Thomas married my mother, Marcella (Martzelena) Lemaire.  Though she was born in North Dakota about 1903, her parents arrived in North Dakota around 1901.  She was the younger daughter of Michael and Magdelena (Ehrestmann) Lemaire.  Her ancestors left Riedselz, Weisenburg, Alsace around 1803 and settled in the Kandel Colony.  Michael Lemaire was one of the founding fathers of that colony.

We do not know from what part of Europe the Mannheim Volks came from.  The Elsass Volks trace their ancestry back to the District of Karlsruhe in the Baden area.  We find no documentation there for the Mannheim Volks.  Thus, we speculate that they may have emigrated to Russia from Alsace as they settled in a colony comprised of many Alsatians well after the colony had been founded, about 1825.

I grew up on a farm north of Webster, North Dakota, going to elementary school in Webster and high school in Devils Lake.  I attended two years of college at St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn. before joining the Peace Corps and serving two years in Senegal, as a rural well digger.  Upon returning from Senegal, I entered the University of North Dakota and received a BS degree in 1968.  Shortly after graduation I was drafted into the army and served a short tour in Vietnam.  I returned to UND for graduate work and then took a job with the Springfield, Missouri school system and retired after 25 years of service.  I live in a rural area of Missouri and have two daughters, Sarah, a physical therapist, and Paula, a recent graduate student at Tulane.

James Volk, Seattle, Washington

Ancestral villages: Baden, Elsass, Kandel, Mannheim, Selz and Strassburg (Kutschurgan District)

I was born on a farm north of Devils Lake, North Dakota (Webster).

I am the middle of family of 11, six boys, five girls.  My father came to this country yr, 1898.  They settled in the Orin-Karlsruhe area.  There my father and mother were married.  My mother’s maiden name was Marcella (Hamaire, also spelled Hemer)

In 1955 I was remised from the US Navy.  I went back to North Dakota and farmed for three years with my parents. 

In 1959 my wife (Janet LaBarre) moved to Seattle Washington.  In 1992 I retired from Seattle School District with 30 years of service.

I belong to G.R.O.W. (German from Russia-Oregon-Washington) of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society.

I am looking forward to going to Ukraine and actually seeing where my father was born.

Richard Volk, Webster, North Dakota

Ancestral villages: Baden, Elsass, Kandel, Mannheim, Selz and Strassburg (Kutschurgan District)

I was born at Mercy Hospital in Devils Lake, North Dakota on Jan 13, 1940. I am the second youngest of eleven children; six boys and five girls. I grew up on the family farm which is located near Webster, North Dakota. In 1962, I took over the farming operation. On April 14, 1964, Kathleen (Kaye) Senger and I were married. Kaye’s father and mother are Joe and Mary (Axtman) Senger. Joe and Mary’s parents were also born in Russia.

My father Thomas Volk, whose father was Leon Volk, was born in a village in Russia. My mother, Marcella Lemer, was born in the US; however, her sisters and brothers were born in Russia. My parents, Tom and Marcella, were married in 1920. In 1921, they moved to the family farm near Webster.

Kaye and I are the parents of four children; three boys and one girl. The oldest, Allen, was killed in a farm accident. Wanda lives in Walla Walla, Washington with her husband, John. Wanda will be making this trip with me. James lives in Denver, Colorado, and works from home for a company in Wisconsin. Brian lives near us and is engaged in farming. He also owns a small trucking company. Brian has a son named Maxwell, who is the only grandchild, and possibly the next generation of Volk farmers.

I will be making this trip with my daughter, Wanda Archer; two brothers, David and James; and my niece Mary Anne and her husband Jon Ingenthron from California.

More biography history about the Volk’s and Lemer’s will be supplied by my brother, David, who is the family historian.

This will be a trip of a lifetime. I have always been interested in how people can leave everything and search for a better life for themselves and their children. And, how we sometimes forget what they have sacrificed for us.

Virginia (Ginny) Weisse, Seattle, Washington

Ancestral villages: Alt Posttal (Maloiarochavets Pershyi); Kolatschowka (Kalachivka); Kulm (Pidhirne); Kurudschika (Sukhuvate) Bessarabia

Born to German immigrants in 1943, I was raised on a farm in Alberta, Canada.

My mother was born in Bessarabia and my father was born in a small village near Dresden.  My mother (age 18) and most of her family immigrated to Canada in 1926.  They homesteaded a farm near Maple Creek in Saskatchewan.  Eventually the children had to start working – my mother ended up in Alberta where she met and married my father in 1940.

My father also worked on farms and homesteaded.  He immigrated to Canada in 1913.

My husband and I met in Vancouver, British Columbia.  We were married in 1988 and then moved to Seattle, WA, USA where we live today.

I am very excited about visiting my mother’s homeland.  In 2006 my husband and I travelled to Germany and found the house that my father grew up in.  It was a special experience.

Additional Tour Members

John Flaig, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Ancestral villages: Mintschuna, Beresina, Arzis, Neu Arzis and Tarutino (Bessarabia)

I was born to German Russian immigrants (on my father's side) on December 17, 1974. My father's family emigrated to Canada from Germany in the early '50s. He met my mother in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They emigrated to the US, after marriage, in the mid '60s. I grew up mainly in Brooklyn, NY.

My father, Herbert Flaig, his parents and sister left their village of Mintschuna in 1941 and traveled through various camps for two years before being settling on a formerly Polish farm near Graudenz (in what was formerly West Prussia). In 1945 they fled the Russians and ended up in the British sector in northern Germany.

I have been interested in the family history going back some time, but only recently engaged in more extensive genealogical research. Traveling to Bessarabia with my father will give me a better sense of my ancestry.

Herbert Flaig, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Ancestral villages:  Mintschuna, Beresina, Arzis, Neu Arzis and Tarutino (Bessarabia)

I was born in Mintschuna, Bessarabia in May, 1938. Along with all other Germans living in Bessarabia, we were resettled by the German government in 1940. This was a process that involved two years of living in camps in Austria and Poland. In 1942 my parents were given a former Polish farm near Graudenz. On January 15, 1945, my father was drafted into the Volkssturm. He was captured and was not to return from a Soviet POW camp for three years.

Facing the advancing Soviet army, my mother, sister and I, along with other family fled on January 23, 1945. We were part of a trek made up of horse drawn wagons, making our way across the eastern parts of Germany. After we had crossed the Elbe River in the spring of 1945 our flight was over.

In 1946 we ended up on a farm near Hanover, Germany where we lived until 1951. My sister worked in a factory and my father, who returned in 1948, was unemployed. Sponsored by the Canadian Baptist Church, we emigrated to Winnipeg, Canada in May 1951. My sister raised a family there, and my parents (who never learned English) also lived and worked in Winnipeg. I graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1964, married a fellow student, Marilyn Glassman, and moved to New York City where I attended Columbia University.

I have been a college administrator and instructor in a number of states, currently in Wisconsin. My wife Marilyn is a freelance book indexer. We have three children, John (who is funding this trip), our daughter Robin, who with her family lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and our youngest son Paul who is a graduate student at Cornell. Our German Shepard, Tasha, was sired by a
Shepard from Wuertemberg and thus shares my Swabian heritage -- our three cats are pure American.

Ursula Reiner, Feldkirch, Austria

Ancestral villages: Landau (Beresan District), Neu-klosterdorf (Cherson District)

I was born 1958 in Feldkirch, Austria. I've spent most of my life in this town. I work in the hospital as an X- ray technician.

I learned the job in Innsbruck and worked in Munich for ten years before returning to Feldkirch, Austria.

At the age of 18, I accompanied my grandmother to visit her sister in Columbus, Ohio.

It was the first time the two met since leaving the Ukraine 32 years before, except for a brief encounter in a refugee camp. This woke my interest in finding my roots. We continued the trip to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, meeting her brother's family.

My mom's family comes from the Ukraine, Grandmother was born in Landau, where she met my grandfather. He was teaching there and his family lived in Klosterdorf.

They married secretly in Odessa (catholic marriages weren't allowed) and moved to Neuklosterdorf.

Anticipating hard times, they fled to Austria with their three children in 1943. The family spent two years in lower Austria and then settled in Vorarlberg, where we've been ever since.

My grandfather continued teaching and my grandmother raised the family.

Traveling has always been one of my biggest passions. Combining this trip, knowing I'm walking in the footsteps of previous generations, is an experience I'm looking forward to.