Germans from Russia Heritage Collection


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1999 Journey to the Homeland Tour Group near Odessa Airport, Odessa, Ukraine in May, 1999.

Journey to the Homeland: Germany and Ukraine

May 18 - May 31, 1999

Biographies of Tour Group Members

* Identifies Deceased

Dr. Donald A. Becker, Naperville, Illinois

I was born January 21, 1943 in Eureka, South Dakota. My grandparents are German-Russians. Grandfather Bollinger was born in Neudorf, grandmother Huber was born in Anenthal, and grandfather Becker was born in Kassel.

My older sister and I were raised in Eureka. Following high school, I graduated from the South Dakota School of Mines with a B.S. in chemistry. Then I graduated from Iowa State University with a PH.D. in analytical chemistry. I've completed 28 years of service with Amoco in Naperville, Illinois.

I was married to Barbara Wolff in 1965. We have three children. Scott (Phoenix) is an accountant, Christopher (Palatine, Illinois) is an electrical engineer, and Nancy (Indianapolis) is a speech therapist.

Barbara and I have enjoyed two bus tours through Europe. In 1995, we traveled from the Thames to the Tiber. This past September, we toured southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Eugene Brilz, Chandler, Arizona

I was born in Dunn County, North Dakota to Rochus Brilz and Margaret (Renner) Brilz. My mother was born in Speyer and came to the United States in 1911. My father was born in Landau and came to the United States in 1914. Even though my parents grew up within miles of each other in Russia, they did not meet until they came to North Dakota. My parents lived on a farm north of Richardton, North Dakota. I am the second youngest of eight children.

My education includes rural school in Dunn County. I could not speak English when I started school. I attended Assumption Abbey High School at Richardton, North Dakota, Carroll College, Helena, Montana and State School of Science at Wahpeton, North Dakota. I served in the US Army, stationed in Austria during the Korean War. I married Georgia Kessler in 1955 at Bismarck, North Dakota. In 1962 we moved to Mesa, Arizona. I am retired from the GM Desert Proving Ground at Mesa. We have three children and four grandchildren, all living in the Phoenix area.

I am looking forward to the Journey to the Homeland Tour.

*Georgia Kessler Brilz, Chandler, Arizona

I was born to Fred Kessler and Frances (Hipfner) Kessler and grew up on a farm near Beulah, North Dakota. My paternal grandparents George Kessler (Glückstal) and Karolina (Lippert) Kessler (Neudorf) came to the United States in 1905 and spent about a year with relatives in South Dakota before homesteading in Mercer County, North Dakota. Five of their children were born in Russia and three in the United States. My father was their first child born in the United States.

My maternal grandparents were Jacob Hipfner and Julia (Usselman) Hipfner. Information on them is rather sketchy, however, it appears my grandfather came to the United States in 1888 at the age of 14 and settled in South Dakota. After my grandparents married, they moved to Mercer County, North Dakota. They had a family of twelve. It appears they are from the Kutschurgan District. We are doing further research on this. I will be visiting the villages of Landau and Speyer with my husband.

I attended a rural one-room grade school for the first eight grades and could not speak English when I started school. I worked as a legal secretary in North Dakota for about 10 years. We moved to Mesa, Arizona from Bismarck in 1962. After our children were in high school and college, I went back to work. I worked for many years as a bookkeeper for an art gallery and retired about three years ago. Our three children and families all live in the Phoenix area.

I am looking forward to the Journey to the Homeland tour.

Jeanette J. Schroeder Grenz, Spring Hills, Kansas

I was born in 1949 in Fremont, Nebraska, the middle of three children. As far as I can determine, all my ancestors came to the United States from Germany. My grandmother on my father's side was born in Fellbach, Wurtemburg, Germany in 1878 and immigrated to the United States with her parents, two sisters, and a brother when she was four years old. My other grandparents were all born in the United States. My father was an Evangelical United Brethren pastor and my mother was a secretary and piano teacher.

I lived for 2 years in Fremont, Nebraska, then moved to Kearney, Nebraska and lived there for 8 years, then moved to Omaha where I lived until I left for college. I attended Westmar College, in LeMars, Iowa, where I met my husband Ken. We were married in 1970.

I was hired by AT&T as a computer programmer and worked two years in Kansas city while Ken finished his schooling. When he graduated, I quit my job and we moved to South Dakota where we lived for eight years and had two children, Catherine and Christopher. We moved back to Kansas City in 1980, and I returned to work for AT&T. We have lived in several towns in Kansas where my husband has been assigned as a United Methodist minister. Our children are grown now; Cathy is an RN and has a 7-year-old daughter, and Chris is a reporter for the Topeka newspaper. I was recently offered an early retirement from AT&T and have enjoyed more free time to do volunteer work in the last few months.

I enjoy reading, doing jigsaw puzzles, playing games on the computer, and of course, traveling. I have been to England, South America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay), Israel, Egypt, Thailand and Vietnam, Canada, Mexico, and most of the states in the United States.

Kenneth K. Grenz

I was born and raised in the German-Russian town of Eureka, South Dakota. Language, food (halvah, halupsie and plachinta), and customs of the German-Russians were all about. My first words simultaneously were "heiss" and "hot". All of my great-grandparents emigrated from Russia. Of about half a dozen congregations in the community, my family was a part of the Evangelical United Brethren (now United Methodist).

I attended college at Westmar College in LeMars, Iowa, and seminary at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. I served United Methodist congregations in Wakonda, Irene, and Gayville-Volin as well as in Wagner, South Dakota. Since 1980, I have been affiliated with the Kansas East Conference of the United Methodist Church pastoring as associate pastor and pastor of Kansas City congregations, Holton, Topeka, and now in Spring Hill.

My wife, Jeanette, recently retired from AT&T, and I have a daughter Catherine, an RN with a 7-year-old daughter Nicole, and a son Christopher, a journalist.

Travel is one of my favorite extra-curricular activities. I've traveled to Haiti, Nicaragua, England, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Israel, Egypt, Thailand, Vietnam and most of the United States. I enjoy reading, music (especially classical and jazz), movies, amateur photography.

With all my family roots going to Russia and Germany, I have a host of Bessarabian and Black Sea roots connections. Most connections which I can trace to Germany go to SW (Schwabia) and Alsace (France). I can still do fairly well with Schwabish orally, but I never learned "book German."

Jan Gruhn, Anchorage, Alaska

I come from a long line of Germans who lived in Russia for a century before coming to the United States. On my father's side, my great-great grandfather Johann Valentine Neuharth left Climbach, France, in 1809 and settled in Kassel, where he and his descendants lived until the family left for the United States in the late nineteenth century. On my mother's side, my ancestors lived in Alsace before journeying to South Russia by way of Hungary. The settled first in Glückstal, then in Peterstal and surrounding villages, coming to this country in 1907. My mother, in fact, was born near Odessa in a village called Eigenfeld, and was a toddler when the family arrived at Ellis Island.

I was born in North Dakota in 1940 to Alfred Neuharth and Louise (Klein) Neuharth. We moved to Missoula, Montana, when I was five years old. My parents were bilingual, and the German culture was very much a part of my family life, including the familiar German dishes and holiday traditions. Although I could speak German fluently as a child, I have lost much of that fluency. I was educated in Missoula public schools and graduated from the University of Montana in 1962 with a B.A. in English, later doing graduate work at the University of Alaska. I have for many years taught English in an Anchorage high school. Just this past June I retired from teaching and am now exploring new directions and adventures for my life. For many years I have been an organist at First Presbyterian Church, one of Anchorage's largest congregations, and I am continuing this commitment to music.

My husband Merlyn and I were married in 1961 and have two grown sons. Merlyn is also a retired teacher, having taught physics, chemistry, and math in Anchorage high schools for many years. Steve, our older son, is married and works as an environmental engineer here in Anchorage. Scott, our younger son, is single and is a structural engineer for an Anchorage firm.

I look forward to retracing the steps of my ancestors in Ukraine and Moldova. I honor them for their pioneering spirit, their down-to-earth goodness, and their great wisdom in choosing the United States as the place to end their wanderings.

Corrine Haussler, Gwinner, North Dakota

I was born on a farm 4 miles north of Monango, North Dakota on November 26, 1934. My paternal grandparents, Christ Bollinger and Eva Oster Bollinger, immigrated to the United States in 1895 and lived on the farm that I grew up on. My maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States in 1889.

My parents were Christ Bollinger and Anna Marie Fiechtner. I attended country school for 7 years - 8th grade and high school in Monango, North Dakota. We spoke a German dialect known to us as Schwabish. My parents spoke English and German so I picked up the Schwabish dialect from them.

I married Louis Haussler in 1954. Our family consisted of three children, Rick born 1955, Terry born 1957 and Cindy born 1960. I enrolled in college in 1966 and graduated with a degree in business education in 1969. I then taught high school business in Manango High School for 8 years. We moved to Gwinner, North Dakota in 1979 and I taught at Sargent Central High School at Forman, North Dakota for 16 years. I retired from teaching in 1994.

My memories of my grandparents include the God-fearing life they lead in the United States, their love for hard work and good food. Many of my families's favorite foods include kuchen, strudla, knepfla, kase knepfla and many others.

I am looking forward to going back in time and retracing my grandparent's footsteps. I am proud of my German-Russian heritage, but I too, am looking forward to returning to North Dakota because this is my home.

Louis Haussler, Gwinner, North Dakota

I was born on a farm near Monango, North Dakota, on September 11, 1925. My parents were Herman Haussler and Alma Hermann. I attended a country school for 8 years, followed by 4 years of high school at Monango.

I worked on the family farm during this time. On April 18, 1954, I was married to Corrine Bollinger. Three children were born to this union.

In 1958, I worked at a petroleum bulk station and continued this until 1979. On August 1, 1979, we moved to Gwinner, North Dakota and I was employed at Melroe Manufacturing, a skid steer loader factory. In 1991, I retired and at the present time, living in Gwinner.

I am looking forward to visiting my cousin and her two daughters living in Stuttgart.

Dr. Leander (Lee) E. Keck, Bethany, Connecticut

I was born near Washburn, North Dakota, the first child of Jacob and Elizabeth (Klein) Keck. I have one brother, Donald, who lives next door to my mother in the unincorporated village of Startup, Washington.

My father was born in a sod house northeast of Washburn, the son of Johannes Keck and Paulina (Schlichenmeyer) Keck, who came to North Dakota from Lichtenfeld, spending a year with relatives in Venturia before homesteading northeast of Washburn in the fall of 1902. My grandmother Keck was the daughter of David Schlichenmeyer and Paulina (Schlafmann) Schlichenmeyer, who also immigrated to the Washburn area. My mother was born in Eigenfeld, the daughter of Ludwig Klein and Elizabeth (Lang) Klein; he came from Schampoli, she from Neu Freudental. In 1907, when my mother was seven years old, they too settled northeast of Washburn.

In 1934, squeezed by the depression and drought, my parents loaded their belongings into a 1928 Chevrolet and headed for western Washington, settling in Sultan in the Skykomish Valley (leading to Stevens Pass). Here my father bought 22 acres of partly cleared land, a "stump ranch", that he gradually turned into a productive farm (dairy, chickens and raspberries) while working in logging as well as in shingle and saw mills.

Having graduated from high school in 1945, I earned my B.A. at Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon, my divinity degree at Andover Newton Theological School near Boston, and the Ph.D. in New Testament at Yale in 1957, after a year of study in Germany, Kiel and Goettingen. After teaching two years at Wellesley College near Boston, I joined the faculty of Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, where I remained until 1972. Then I moved to Emory University in Atlanta. In 1979, I was appointed Dean of Yale Divinity School; a decade later I returned full-time to the classroom until retirement in December, 1997. My professional life has been devoted to teaching, lecturing here and abroad, editing, and writing. Since retirement, I continue with various editing and writing projects.

In 1956, I married Janice Osburn. We have two sons, both historians. Stephen teaches at the National University of Singapore, and David is in Manila, engaged in research and writing. This fall he will be at Duke University School as both a degree student and visiting faculty. Janice, unfortunately, knows none of this, for she is in the advanced stage of Alzheimer's disease.

Thomas H. Larscheid, Eckelshiem, Germany

I was born in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, on May 18, 1948, 100 years to the day that the first democratic German parliament met in St. Paul's Church, in Frankfurt, Germany. Some say it explains my political views and absolute commitment to Freiheit (freedom).

Although I have lived in Europe (Germany and Belgium) for 20-plus years, I still struggle with German. I have been told I speak without much of an accent but my memory does not retain much. The verbs are killers!

My father's ancestors came to America in 1842, settling in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They were Rheinlanders from a village called Neideradenau. I was the first Larscheid from America to visit this village in 1990. My paternal grandfather, Tony, moved to Mott, North Dakota, around 1911 with his brother to farm. The brother, unable to adapt to the plains, returned to Wisconsin a few years later. My grandmother, Pauline, was half-Flemish and half-German. Tony and Pauline spoke German but did not pass it on to their children.

My maternal grandfather, Bartel Braun, and grandmother, Monica Dauenhauer, are from the Beresan District, immigrating to Richardton, North Dakota, in the 1890s. They later moved to Mott. Both spoke Russian and German; my grandfather spoke Low German, my grandmother High German. It is said my great-grandfather, Markus Dauenhauer (born in Landau, Russia, August 12, 1850), did not favor the marriage. Markus Dauenhauer was a very successful farmer in Russia and America. He gave or sold, there is a dispute, the land for Assumption Abbey in Richardton.

The Great Depression forced my parents to move from North Dakota to South Dakota. I lost my entire German-Russian heritage, save for a few stories from my mother, because of this. My mother grew up speaking German, but World War I put a stop to that. They were forbidden to speak German in public, especially in school. My grandfather was very pro Kaiser and grandmother worried constantly about him getting into trouble.

I spent 12 years in a Catholic school in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, St. Mary's, graduating in 1966. I attended South Dakota State University in Brookings, receiving a BA in Speech (broadcast journalism) in 1971. After working 6 months in Pierre South Dakota, with the Department of Public Instruction as an information specialist, I entered the Army to fulfill my duty commitment.

I spent 5.5 years on active duty in Pirmasens, Germany, not knowing until after I was discharged that this was the area from where my maternal ancestors went to Russia in 1809.

Currently I am an editor-writer at the U.S. Army European headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany.

My wife, Carol-Ann (Whipple) Larscheid, also has ancestral roots in Russia. Her grandmother (Schumacher) also came from the Odessa area, but we have little information.

I'm looking forward to an exciting trip.

Michael M. Miller, Fargo, North Dakota

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. I shall never forget the frigid temperatures and the hospitality at the home of Antonina Welk Iwanowa in the village of Selz in December, 1995. Antonina died in October, 1998.

Traveling now to Odessa, especially to the Kutschurgan villages and to Krasna is like coming home to the land where my grandparents walked the same streets."

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 NDSU Libraries staff since 1967, where he compiled the annotated bibliography, Researching the Germans from Russia, published by the North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, NDSU, 1987.

He produced the visual program in 1980, At Home on the Prairies: the Germans from Russia for the Germans from Russia Heritage Society. Working with the family of Lawrence Welk, he was instrumental in the family's decision in 1993 to donate the archives of the late bandleader to the NDSU Libraries.

Besides his university work, he photography concentrating on nature, historic buildings, human interest, and wildlife.

He has visited Odessa in June, 1994; December, 1995; June, 1996; May, 1997; and May, 1998. Michael was co-producer of the documentary, "The Germans from Russia: Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie," produced by Prairie Public Broadcasting and the NDSU Libraries premiering in February, 1999.

Phyllis M. Pearce, Alta Loma, California

I was born in Portland, Oregon, and grew up in Salem. I was the second child of J.H. and Esther (Rosin) Ryan. I attended Salem schools, including Willamette University, until my marriage in 1947. My husband worked for Sears and was transferred frequently for the next 20 years. We had two daughters, Kelly and Ryan. We finally settled in Fullerton, California when our oldest daughter started high school. The marriage ended in 1979.

I started teaching U.S. History at Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier, Californian, in the fall of 1966. In 1979, I became Chair of the Business Ed. Department at Rio Hondo, remaining in this position until retirement in 1988. Since that time, I have lived first in Upland and now in Alta Loma near my daughter, Kelly.

Kelly is married to Manuel Bocanegra and they have one son, Carlos, who is attending UCLA on a soccer scholarship. They live in Alta Loma. Both Kelly and Manuel are teachers. Ryan is married to Roger Wiley, an attorney, and lives in McAlester, Oklahoma. They have two children, Adam age 9 and Carmen age 4. Roger and Ryan are both former teachers who met while teaching at the Santa Fe Indian School.

I am looking forward to learning more about my Germans from Russia roots. This heritage was never mentioned while I was growing up. I have a true "melting pot" inheritance of Irish, Scottish, English, French, and German ancestors.

Elsie O. Schauer Prouse, Spokane, Washington

I was born July 12, 1928 to Theobald Schauer and Emma (Morast) Schauer. Both were born in North Dakota to parents who had come to this country from South Russia.

My father's parents came from Neudorf, South Russia and my mother's father, George Morast, came from the Crimea, we think from Kronental. We do not know where my mother's mother was born because she died when my mother was five and the death certificate gives South Russia as place of birth. Her name was Barbara Kirchmeier.

I am the eldest of eight children. My sister, Violet Tanner, was the sixth child.

We were born in Montana. My step-grandmother, Christine Wohlgemuth Moss Morast, attended my mother at my birth. I was born in my grandparents' home on their farm near Terry, Montana.

My parents and seven children moved to North Idaho in early 1941 from Fort Peck, Montana. My youngest sister was born in Coeur d' Alene in 1945.

All eight of us graduated from high school and only one brother graduated from college. Several of us had further schooling but did not receive degrees.

My first marriage was to Olin Glenn Thompson. We did a great deal of traveling during our twenty year marriage.

I married Joseph M. Prouse, Jr., in 1969 and lived in Wichita, Kansas, for 28 years. He retired from Boeing-Wichita in 1981 and I quit my job at the same time.

We were "snowbirds" for many winters. We spent one winter in Tucson, Arizona, two in Chula Vista, California, three in Harlington, Texas and six in San antonio, Texas.

As a child, I was taken to the Lutheran Church and was baptized in it. I also spoke German only. However, when we lived in the Fort Peck area we attended non-denominational Sunday School and had to learn English. This was also the case in north Idaho, so I really don't know much about the Lutheran Church, nor can I speak German or understand very much of it.

Since moving to Spokane after my divorce in 1997, I have become active in the Presbyterian Church. It has been a source of comfort to me and has helped sustain my faith in God.

My hobbies are reading, quilt making, gardening, dancing and traveling.

I am very much looking forward to this trip to the homeland.

Dean and Olivia (Balon) Sane, Mississauga, Ontario

I was born on a farm in southern Saskatchewan, about six miles from the North Dakota border. I am one of six siblings born to Lambert Sane (Sohn, Soehn) and Eleanora Schnell.

My father, Lambert Sane, and his parents, Aegidius and Veronica (Friedrich) Saen, and their six children left the port of Hamburg and arrived in Quebec City, Quebec Canada on June 21, 1929. They proceeded on to their Saskatchewan homestead at Frobisher, Saskatchewan.

Lambert Sane, born (1910), and his father, Aegidius Saen, born (1883) were born in Karamurat, Dobruduscha. Aegidius's father, Mathias Soehn, born (1860) and his father, August Soehn, born (1833) were born in Krasna, Bessarabia. August Soehn's father, Peter Sohn, born (1802) in Bavaria, Germany.

My paternal grandmothers were, Veronica Friedrich, born (1893) in Mannheim, Helena Bogolowski, born (1862) in Krasna, Margaretha Mueller, born (1839) in Krasna, Bessarabia and Eleanora Schnell, born (1910).

My mother was born in Mariental, Saskatchewan to Emanuel Schnell, born (1872) Landau, Russia and Margareta Bachmeier, born (1877) Krasna, Bessarabia. Emanuel Schnell's father, Daniel Schnell, born (1842) Landau, Russia and his wife, Katherine Kautzman, born (1847) Landau, Russia, came to Canada in 1903 and homesteaded in Mariental, Saskatchewan, about 12 miles west of Estevan, Saskatchewan.

Emanuel Schnell, his wife Margareta and three daughters left Landau and arrived in Quebec City, Quebec on October 18, 1902 and journeyed to their homestead in Mariental, Saskatchewan. Daniel Schnell's parents originated from Alsace. Joseph Schnell, born (1811) in Lietenheim, Alsace and Barbara Bosherz, born (1815) in Schleithal, Alsace.

The formal schooling for me began in a one-room rural schoolhouse, followed by a school in Steelman and high school in Bienfait, Saskatchewan. Further education took place at the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and the University of Ottawa, a Masters in Health Care Administration. My professional administration career, some 30 years, commenced in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan followed by an Administrators job at North York General Hospital in Toronto, and finally for the last sixteen years as President of the Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario. I retired in September 1997 and do some part-time consulting and am full-time at enjoying antiquing, my garden, trees and collection of plants.

Olivia Sane (nee Balon) was born in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, to John Balon, born (1894) in Radouti, Romania and Eugenie Colibaba, born (1905) in Rodowitz, Bucovina, Austria. Olivia's maternal grandparents, Gavril Colibaba came to Canada in 1914, followed by his wife, Aspasia Sindilar, and daughters, Eugenie and Gladys in 1924.

Olivia's early schooling was also in a rural one-room school, followed by public and high school in Regina, Saskatchewan. After high school, Olivia entered the Regina Grey Nun's School of Nursing. Following graduation, she attended the University of Saskatchewan and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree. Olivia has spent all her nursing career as an Instructor and Community College Professor. She is now retired, June (1996), and enjoys knitting, reading, and spending time with the granddaughters.

We have three daughters; Joette married to Jim Fielding, they have three daughters, Sarah, Sydney, and Samantha, Margot, who lives at home, and Jodie married to Andrew Pappas.

We spend the Ontario winters at our condominium in Delray Beach, Florida.

We have previously travelled to the Caribbean, England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Kuwait, Brazil, Chile, Thailand, Singapore, and China and to most states in the United States. We are looking forward to adding the experiences of Eastern Europe to our travel adventures, and anticipate a rich and rewarding experience with fellow tourists to the villages of our forefathers.

Violet Schauer Tanner, Olympia, Washington

I was born in Midway, Montana May 26, 1938, grew up in north Idaho. The sixth of eight children of Theobald Schauer, born 1903, Streeter, North Dakota. Parents were, Peter Schauer and Katharina (Job) Schauer, both born in Neudorf, Russia and married there. They immigrated to the United States in 1900. They had 15 children and 58 grandchildren.

My mother, Emma (Morast) Schauer, was born in Beulah, North Dakota, in 1907. Parents were, George Morast, born 1880, Korntental, Crimea, Russia, immigrated to the United States in 1891 with parents and family. Married Barbara Kirchmeier from South Russia, her father was Carl Kirchmeier and her mother was Shramn of South Russia. Haven't been able to find out where in South Russia.

My husband, John Tanner, from California, since we married in 1957 is an Electronic Technician for the U.S. Post Office. We lived in Spokane for 26 years, now on the west coast for the past 11 years. I'm employed at the LDS Seattle Temple for the past 11 years.

We have four children. Rose Brooks who lives in Everett, Washington with her husband and four children. John died at the age of six with Leukemia. Mark Tanner lives in Sandy, Utah with his wife and two sons. Sally Rhoads lives in Panaca, Nevada with her husband and six children. We have 12 grandchildren, oldest being 18 and youngest 2.

All of my grandparents and great-great-great-grandparents were born in Russia. I finally have some information on a few of the lines tracked back into Germany. I've been working on it since the early 1960s.

I have written to two of my father's cousins, once removed, that have moved back to Germany after spending years in Russian labor camps. I found out about them in the book, "Our People" by Marcus Job. He has been corresponding with them, but I'm more closely related to them than he is. I am looking forward to visiting them on this tour.

I desire to walk or see the places where my grandparents lived and died and imagine what their lives were like. I have always wanted to go and gain more knowledge of the areas where they lived. My grandmothers both died before I was born, only seen my grandfathers a few times. They spoke German so I could not visit with them.

I like to read, do genealogy research and putting all my ancestors in computer, enjoy gardening, hiking and my grandchildren. My sister, Elsie Prouse, and I are looking forward to our Journey to the Homeland in 1999. We both like to travel.

*Dr. Ralph Tarnasky, Bismarck, North Dakota

I was born in Lehr, North Dakota, February 3, 1924 to Ida (Fercho) and Sam Tarnasky who were also born in Lehr. My German-Russian grandfather Fercho was born in Paris and my Tarnasky grandfather was born in Tarutino, Bessarabia.

I graduated from Lehr High School in 1941, attended college until enlisting in the Army Air Force in late 1942, serving in England and as an interpreter in France and Germany. At the end of the war, I had to stay in Germany until 1946 because the non-fraternization policy would not allow Germans to communicate officially in English with Americans.

After the war, I continued my education, earning a Bachelor of Science and PHD from UND. Following UND, we spent 10 years associated with Wake Forest Medical School where I received my MD degree, post graduate training and was on the faculty of the Pathology Department for 4 years. In 1963, we moved to Bismarck where I took on the developing of the St. Alexius Hospital Pathology Department and School of Medical Technology. In 1986, I retired from full time practice but still attend medical school conferences as associate clinical professor of pathology. In addition, I'm in my 7th year as Medical Director of the North Dakota Department of Health Laboratories.

My wife, Phyllis, who has been with me since my first year of medical school is an active artist and we have 3 married children and 5 grandchildren. Two of our children are living in northern Colorado which was largely settled by Germans from Russia.

We have traveled much of the world, but I am especially looking forward to this visit to the ancestral home.

John W. Teske, Falls Church, Virginia

On September 17, 1907, my grandparents Jonathan Teske and Johanna Friske were married. He was from Bergdorf and she was from Alexanderfeld. Jonathan met Johanna on trips to market from Bergdorf when he visited the Friske home in Alexanderfeld. Shortly after their marriage, they set out for America to join relatives and homestead in South Dakota, arriving in Boston on November 7, 1907 on the SS Ivernia which left Liverpool nine days earlier. Jonathan probably asked Johanna to immigrate with him, and she readily agreed. Free land in America had a strong attraction as it did 100 years earlier in southern Russia.

Their first stop upon arrival was at Johanna's brother, Johan Friske in Bowdle, South Dakota. The following spring, they began homesteading 160 acres near Faith, living on the land for two years before establishing residence in Mobridge. They successfully homesteaded the land and built a house in Mobridge at the same time. Jonathan worked most of his life for the various railroads serving South Dakota, and moved between Mobridge and Aberdeen.

They first lived in Aberdeen in about 1909 where the first of my four uncles were born. They then moved back to Mobridge where my other three uncles and father were born. They finally returned to Aberdeen and put down roots in 1919. Jonathan built a second house for the family in Aberdeen which still stands. Both became naturalized in Aberdeen in the 1920s.

Jonathan and Johanna left five sons, ten grand children, and many great grand children. Other Teske and Friske family members came to South Dakota, resided in Aberdeen, Eureka, or Long Lake and became part of the extended family.

On a personal note, I have only recently begun assembling the genealogy of the Teske and Friske family, and have much to learn. Fortunately, there are many resources available for the task including this Journey to the Homeland Tour to ancestral villages in the Ukraine and Moldova. My goal is to eventually trace our family lines back to Germany. I will be the first in my family to return to the German colonies since my grandparents left there in 1907.

Also, I just recently retired from thirty years with the Federal Government and have our family genealogy as one of my projects. I spent my working career in the field of occupational safety and health, and have several college degrees and professional certifications. I am presently Secretary-Treasurer of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists to which I was elected in 1997.

Betty (Baron) Thatcher, Tigard, Oregon

Betty writes, I was born in Mandan, North Dakota in 1926. My parents were Christian Baron and Margaret Schmidt and I am the third of seven children. My parents were born in Karlsruhe in the Beresan District. My father came to North Dakota with a cousin in 1913 and my mother came with her parents, grandmother and two sisters, settling in Fallon, North Dakota. The Schmidt family moved to Lodi, California in 1921. Only one of my father's eight siblings, his brother, Lorenz, came to the U.S; he farmed in the Fallon area. I recently learned that another brother had been mayor of Karlsruhe in the early 1940s.

My family moved to Portland in 1943. After graduating from nursing school, I was in the Navy Nurse Corps for two years during the Korean War. After my tour of duty, I returned to Portland and began my career as an operating room nurse, working in hospitals in most of the western states. I retired after the death of my husband in 1986.

Travel has been my favorite hobby. My most memorable trip was to Russia with a group of Oregon nurses. We toured their hospitals and met with other health professionals. Three sisters and a cousin, born in Karlsruhe, were with me. We met two of the sisters she had not seen in forty years; they now live in Germany. One other sister is still in Kazakhstan. On a visit to Germany in 1991 with my youngest sister, I met my father's one surviving sister. Communication was a challenge, as no one spoke English and my German was very basic, but we did manage.

I volunteer at a senior center and have recently taken up golf again, weather permitting (that means no rain or temperature above 80). I am looking forward to my second visit to Odessa and especially to visiting the village of Karlsruhe.

Dennis Walther, Fairfield, California

I want to go on this trip because my grandmother and I were very close and she shared many stories with me. She told me of coming over on the Kaiser Wilhelm and landing at Ellis Island and then coming to Leola, South Dakota. Then on to marriage and living under the wagon during her first days as a bride. I feel she did this so I could have a better life. I know that my grandfather and grandmother on my mother's side made similar sacrifices, and now that I have the opportunity, I want to walk where they walked. I want their spirit to surround me and engulf me. This is my hope. I will be the first in the family to do this. Several others have expressed this desire.

Father's Side:
Alexander Walther and his brother, Emanuel, came to America together from Worms, South Russia in 1885. Emanuel settled in Chicago and no one in the family knows much about him or his family. Alexander came to Mound City and married Katherine Wagner in 1886. Katherine came from Guldendorf, South Russia. They had 14 children. The youngest, Jacob, was my grandfather.

Jacob Breckel with his wife, Elizabeth (Pheifer) Breckel, came from Peterstal. They had four children when they came to America in 1897 on the ship, Kaiser Wilhelm. Their third child, Hannah, was my grandmother and she married Jacob Walther. The Breckel's fifth child was born in America.

Hannah and Jacob settled in the Winona vicinity southwest of Strasburg, North Dakota. Later, they bought some property on Beaver Creek on the east side of the Missouri River. Here they had sixteen children, of which fourteen survived to adulthood. Of the fourteen, twelve were boys. The oldest boy was Theodore, my father Ted, and he married Bertha Renschler.

Mother's Side:
My great grandfather, Johann (may have been called George) Renschler was born in New Freudental, South Russia. He came to America with his wife, Katherine Volk. They had ten children. Karl, (always called Charles), Renschler was married to Christine Dufloth and homesteaded sixteen miles west of Linton, North Dakota. Christine came to America from Hoffnungstal, South Russia. They were my grandparents. They had six children. The oldest, Bertha, married my father Theodore Walther. They had three children.

Dr. Kurt-Alexander Zeller, Portland, Oregon

I expect that my father will include all the ancestral stuff (in which he is the expert anyway; my function is translation) in his biographical information, so you can read it there and just add a generation, which would be me. (Along with my brothers, Dirk and Clark, but "they do not come into this story much," as the children's book writers like to say of siblings.)

I grew up in Portland, Oregon, where my father was a dentist and my mother was a stay-at-home mom, and I was a chubby kid with thick glasses who was truly brilliant in the classroom and truly pathetic on the playing field. I loved school--all except recess, which was an ordeal straight out of Dante, as far as I was concerned. The most unusual thing about our family life was that my mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was six, which meant that I learned to cook and clean and do laundry and sew and shop and handle family budgeting about a decade before most men do (or rather, before they think about doing it and then watch a football game until the mood passes). The power rush was intoxicating--there's nothing like going straight from finally being allowed to cross the street on your own to being turned loose on butcher knives, seam rippers, and chlorine bleach.

My parents were very typical, good parents: they made us brush our teeth and do our homework (actually, nobody had to make me do that) and go to Sunday School and turn down the stereo and turn off the television and go outside on such a beautiful day and stop hitting your brother this instant. They taught us to say "please" and "thank you" and "I'm sorry" even if we usually did have our fingers crossed behind our backs) and not to talk while you're chewing or to contradict adults, even when they say the capital of Nevada is Reno and you know it's Carson City. Everything I needed to know I learned in kindergarten-stuff.

Unfortunately, they made one fatal error. They signed me up for the children's choir at church. Man, what a mistake.One little step on the slippery slope... Well, before they knew it, they were paying for piano lessons, and then they were paying for a piano, paying for organ lessons, paying for voice lessons, driving me hither and yon for rehearsals of kid roles in operas and musicals, and then they were hearing those words that are very parent's deepest fear: "Mom, Dad--I've got something to tell you. I've decided to major in music."

Actually, that's not quite what happened. I went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas as a voice major, but I wanted to take some acting classes--and discovered that the Theater program at SMU was so snooty it wouldn't let anyone take even Acting 101 unless you were a Theater major. So I said I'd be a double major in Music and Theater, which my advisor said was impossible and never had been done in the university's 70 years--a conversation he was very happy to repeat verbatim to my parents when they visited four years later for commencement as I received degrees in Music and in Theater. Having had more than enough of Dallas, but not having had enough of school, I went immediately to the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati and eventually took every single course that looked interesting (not all of them turned out to be), had a lot of fun, dragged at least six classmates now on the Met roster through their comprehensive exams, and made a lot more money each year as a graduate assistant than I've made in many of the years since. By the time I got tired of that, all I had to do to be awarded a doctoral degree was write a dissertation--and since I can do that just drawing up a grocery list, within six months I was able to confuse people who telephoned my parents' house asking for "Dr. Zeller" by asking brightly, "Which one?"

Well, that was the last time there was any order or logical progression to my life. Since that time I've sung in the Midwest, in the Deep South, and all up and down I-5 on the West Coast. I've toured Austria in a Kurt Weill revue and been on German TV and placed 4th (out of 148) in the International Vinas Competition for concert singers in Barcelona. I've performed with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the largest repertory theater company in North America. However, I've also been unemployed for periods of as much as 12 months at a time. (Of course, that makes it easier to find time to visit Bessarabia.)

Feckless artist, however, is a role that ultimately doesn't really fit my personality very well--too much German DNA. (This also explains why I have absolutely no sense of humor.) So for the past dew years, while I still try to do as much performing as I can make happen, I've also been working as Assistant Professor of Voice at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon (which trivia buffs will know is the oldest university west of the Missouri River), where my students are ice kids, but the ever-increasing number of times per minute I think, "What are they teaching these kids in these schools these days?" continually reminds me that as far as they're concerned, I am already just slightly older and more out of touch than Methuselah. Nevertheless, they do provide me with occasional moments of satisfaction and amusement, such as when one young tenor wrote on his course evaluation sheet, "It is my impression that Dr. Zeller seems to demand more of his students than do the other voice teachers. I can't decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing."

If I have any spare time, I learn a new opera role. If I have any spare money, I do some auditions. So I really don't have any "leisure activities" or interests to write about (like Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's Bill, I don't play golf or tennis or polo)--except that I do collect maps of all types, perhaps because it's cheaper than travel, which I do also like. I particularly like Europe, where I sometimes feel more at home than in parts of the USA (Dallas, for instance!), but I have never been anywhere in Europe east of Budapest. This "journey to the homeland" is the first extended trip my father and I ever have taken together, so it may be a very interesting experience in several dimensions of the time-space continuum. (General hint to tour bus and dinner companions: Politics probably is not the safest conversation topic. Just a friendly warning.)

Dr. Norman K. Zeller, Portland, Oregon

I was born in Beulah, North Dakota on July 3, 1931. Lived in North Dakota until I was eleven years old, then moved to Oregon during World War II. Completed my education in Oregon at Willamette University and the University of Oregon Dental School. Graduated from Dental School in 1959. I was married in 1955 to Johanna Beckham and we have three sons and now two grandsons.

I practiced dentistry in Portland for 30 years and retired in 1989. Since retirement, I keep busy playing golf and tennis several times each week. I enjoy spending time in Hawaii twice a year to get away from the Oregon rain.

My interest in traveling to Germany and Russia is to get a feel for the part of the world where my father was born. My grandfather and family immigrated from Klöstitz to the United States in 1903. He came via Canada and then to North Dakota and settled at Heil in Grand County, North Dakota.

As a child I would hear the older generation talk about the "old country" and I am excited to be on this tour to actually see the old country of which they spoke. My mother's family are also from this area of South Russia or Bessarabia My mother's maiden name was Sandau and the Sandau's lived in the villages of Katzbach, Alt-Postal and Eigenfeld. I hope I will be able to visit all of these villages.

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