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Researching the Germans from Russia: Annotated
Bibliography of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection.
Review by Clifford Scott
Miller, Michael M. Researching the Germans from Russia: Annotated Bibliography of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection. North Dakota State University, Institute for Regional Studies, Fargo, North Dakota, 1987.
The ethnic revival of the past quarter-century has produced an outpouring
of scholarly works on specific ethnic groups and local history; even
more research and publication in family genealogy has appeared during
the same period. For scholars and lay people interested in Germans
from Russia and the northern Great Plains, where most of these immigrants
to North America settled, Researching the Germans from Russia will
be indispensable. This book compiled by Michael M. Miller of the North
Dakota State University Library, was written principally as a guide
to the use of materials in the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection
at the North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies in Fargo and the
Germans from Russia Heritage Library in Bismarck. However, its careful
annotation of books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, and audiovisual
materials, along with excellent photographs, from the 1880s to the
present, provides an informative overview of the subject in general.
The organization of the book and the kinds of information included
in the annotations and introductions to various materials are designed
to assist visitors the two collections as well as those utilizing
interlibrary loans for their research. The logical categories employed
include such subjects as the specific types of the Germans from
Russia (e.g., Black sea, Volga River, Volhynian, Hutterite, and
Mennonite); language, literature, folklore, music, church histories,
family histories, community histories, County histories, and censuses.
Both German-and English-language materials are included, as are
works published by Germans from Russia societies and scholars in
the Federal Republic of Germany. Four indexes are included to cross
reference material categorized by colony and district in Russia,
personal and family name, general name and subject, and title. Over
ninety percent of the materials cited are from Germans from Russia
Heritage Collection in Fargo.
This guide is an admirable success in virtually all respects. Its
large-size format is handsome, with uncrowded pages, quality paper,
and clarity of presentation. The historical photographs of people
and countryside are particularly noteworthy and evocative of the
subjects included in the bibliography. The annotations are generally
to the point and informative; moreover, they even acknowledge defects
in particular materials. This work will stimulate to action some
people who may have hesitated to undertake a research project, and
it will save all researchers in the fields covered much time as
well as improve the quality of their finished work. One might question
the brief inclusion of Amish materials, since there is no Russian
connection to this Anabapist group, and wonder whether some subtopic
listings might better have been alphabetized by author rather than
by title, but these are judgment differences of opinion that in
no way detract from the heavy use this publication will receive.
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Permission
to use any images from the GRHC website may be requested
by contacting Michael
M. Miller |
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