are there records such as birth records, marriages and death records for germans from Russia available online

Question

I'm asking because i would like to trace my great grandma Amalia's ancestry further. so far I only know her grandparents names and one set of great grandparents of hers. I would like the break past the brick walls on this side of the family tree

https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Ehoff-Family-Tree-1

Comments

I'm hoping to reopen this since there's now a decent possibility more records have been released. i'd like some help on my volga line

Answer 1

Finding records for my Volga Germans online has been pretty tricky. I did manage to find them on a passenger list through the Ellis Island site for free. I found lots of sources for them here in the states because I knew where they located, but I hit that ocean-size brick wall, too. I've been taking a bit of a break from researching mine because I'm waiting to get a little more family knowledge. I know what town they came from, but records over there have been lost, or displaced, or outright destroyed (Germans became enemies of the Russians during WWII). My understanding is that the best bet for records is through the various churches, and most likely not online. There are village coordinators available through the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, or AHSGR, who have contacts on the other side, and do lineage charts. If you're lucky someone else has already paid for a line to be researched, and you can buy the chart or a book or something. If it hasn't been researched, it will take them time to do it. There are records in books you can buy. My understanding is it all costs money at this point to fund further research and get access to more records. I do know there are some absolutely lovely biographies that were created by Julie Mangano for her Volga German profiles (I really hope she doesn't mind me mentioning them, but i strive to one day have profiles this nice) here is one www.wikitree.com:wiki:Kaiser-1024

Comments

I've recently begun tracing my husband's family who were Germans from Russia. I found his grandmother's obituary on AHSGR. I was pleasantly amazed at the amount of information which was in the obituary. 

---

Join the Germans from Russia Heritage Society located in Bismark ND.  I bought all the census records of the Germans from Russia.  You need to find out what villages they lived in.  My ancestors came from the villages of Elsass, Mannheim, Kandel. What surname are you looking for.

---

I am researching my ancestors, presently the surname Wentz, from the village of Elsass. I know other German relatives also came to the US from the Black Sea region. I don't live close to Bismark, ND. Are there digitized records such as census, marriage, birth and death available for the Kutschurgan and Odessa colonies and villages online with a membership? What years are covered?

---

You don't happen to have Wentz relatives in McClusky, ND, do you?  They are my cousin-in-laws.

GRHS and AHSGR can both help you (with a paid membership), and they do have information online.  There are a couple free resources as well, but they're not extensive (I don't have any links on hand right now, sorry).

---

To be honest, I am not certain. There are a lot of Wentz's in my family! We may have a common ancestor. Do you have a Peter Wentz and Kathrina (Thomas) Wentz in your family tree (1830s - 1930s timeframe)? They originally settled in Pierce County, but eventually their family and subsequent generations spread into other areas such as Benson and Wells counties, as well as into Canada, Washington, California Wisconsin and Michigan.

Answer 2

I have had some luck using https://www.familysearch.org/search I have number of German ancestors and was able to find Christening and marriage records there. I have never searched for Russian but its worth a try. It's free :)

Hope that helps!

Casey

Comments

i already tried that with no success

Answer 3

Try doing a search for Amalia’s immigration record. If she came over with her parents, you can search for her father’s name. Sometimes the name Amalia was misspelled or they may have listed her as Mollie, so her name might not be as easy to find. There is a space for where they were from, and most (but not all) will list the village and country.

You can also try looking up Amalia and Peter in U. S. Census records. You can often confirm parent names and places of origin.

Finally, the most recent Volga German censuses are for 1854. There is not much information available after that unless it comes directly from families. And there is no public online database where you can search for your Volga German ancestors. Once you confirm the Village they are from, contact the AHSGR Village Coordinator and ask if they have information about your family members. They are the only ones who keep pedigree charts in a searchable format. They can pass along any information they have. Good luck!

Comments

i'll see what new info. i can find in census records. i only know peter ehoff and amalia filbert's parents names and such from personal recollections of older relatives(plus i remeber my dad talking about an old photo he recalls seeing when visiting relatives with martin filbert's mom in it shortly before she died.). on another note:was there other european people who settled near volga river besides germans? because, the last name morland doesn't sound german

---

i forgot to mention i think my great grandma was born in the states.

Answer 4

Have you tried the Odessa Digital Library?

Answer 5

Absolute majority of Volga Germans were victims of Stalin's purges and repressions. Over the last decade many names of such victims were added to websites that try to list all such persecuted victims.

One of the largest such memorial lists is site [http://lists.memo.ru]. Unfortunately, it's only in Russian. It might be of interest to you that the site lists 36 individuals with surname Brecht: [http://lists.memo.ru/d5/f277.htm#n35]

I also checked surname Echoff and found none in the list.

Filbert surname has 61 results - [http://lists.memo.ru/d34/f115.htm#n1]

Comments

it wasn't my brecht ancestors who were volga germans.- it was the ehoffs and filberts

Answer 6

Do you know for sure that they are Volga Germans? Other Germans went south near Odessa. There’s a very good free website called Black Sea German Research, blackseagr.org. It has a searchable database and maps. Click research at the top. The research page provides a link to Center for Volga German Studies.

Comments

so not all germans who went to Russia are called Volga germans?

i just know my great grandma's father and maternal grandfather came from some region in Russia called Samara. her mom cames from some place called Konstantinovskj(not sure where in russia that's at)

---

Only the ones who settled near the Volga River are Volga Germans. My family was from villages/colonies in Kutschurgan area near Odessa, Russia (now Ukraine). Volga was the first area settled.

---

is samara near the volga river?

---

I don’t know anything about Volga, so I googled it. The Samara River runs into the Volga River at the city of Samara. From the Volga map at blackseagr.org it looks like there’s over 100 different colonies along the Volga River.

I just saw another map that shows there are 20 Samara colonies northeast of the original Volga colonies and just north of the city of Samara.

---

So i guess my ehoff and filbert ancestors are indeed volga germans?

---

Katy, I found one mention of Filbert from Samara in http://lists.memo.ru/index21.htm —

Filbert Aleksnder Aleksndrovich (Aleksandrovich means that his fathers name was also Aleksander). Was born in 1877 in Samara province. German. Grain-grower. Lived in Mineralovodsky region.

Answer 7

Do you know if her family were Mennonites? Mennonites founded a daughter colony from the Volga German colonies called Alt-Samara with the main town called Alexandertal in the Samarskaja gubernija, about 60 miles east of the Volga and 80 miles north of the city of Samara. The colony existed from 1859 through 1941.

Comments

i think they may have been lutheran. I also wonder if the colony they came from had english people as well

---

BTW, here is Konstantinovsky in the Saratow District: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Konstantinovskiy,+Saratov+Oblast,+Russia,+412281/@51.2947863,43.19882,8.2z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x413e63c485f7ab4b:0xc50713c47a4d9e1f!8m2!3d51.9392266!4d42.750561

Answer 8

Try this link for Volga German church records.

https://volgarecords.com/

It is a work in progress so information you are looking for may not be there yet.

Answer 9

Katy,

If your ancestor lived in Schilling, you will need to email Gary Martens who has a database of the Lower Volga Villages which includes his work on census and church records. See email here: https://www.schillinggr.org/database.html   As you've discovered Schilling is also known as Konstantinovka (Volga village), but there is also a daughter colony Konstantinovka (https://volga.domains.unf.edu/colonies/konstantinovka). It was founded in 1859 from those who were in Schilling, Jost, and other colonies. The Ehoff family also lived in the village of Jost. Gary may be able to find more information for you from family lists. Given Peter Ehoff's second wife's name as Filbert, it is unlikely they were Black Sea Germans (now Ukraine), so that could be ruled out (I also checked data there). Peter most likely married Amalia in Konstantinovka.

You can also become a member of AHSGR.org and receive a discount on purchased records to complete your family tree. Because families moved from one village to another you have to trace them using census and any church records (most not available online). Some volunteer coordinators have them for their village and each village is different, thus the emails to VCs and purchase of records is often necessary.

The Filbert lines lived in Schilling, Beideck, Konstantinovka, and also Grimm and have German origins to: Gronau (Bensheim), Kr. Bergstraße, Hessen See Dr. Mai's research here: https://volga.domains.unf.edu/surnames/filbert

The Liverpool to Boston manifest shows he came with his brother Carl Ehoff and the scribe lists "cousin" H Ehof. If you have not already, fully research Carl as you may be able to find additional information.

Based on a quick search of my own, the Winnipeg to Vermont manifest lists his father as Heinrich in Konstantinowka and the family was bound to his brother Gottlieb in Fort Collins, CO (probably to labor at sugar beet factory there). See second page of manifest. Researching Gottlieb may also give you additional information on the parents. "Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-9981-3SY1-L?cc=2185163&wc=3KMS-L2W%3A1018492201%2C1018499401 : 9 October 2015), (M1464) Manifests of Passengers Arriving in the St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895-1954 > Roll 154, vol 144, May 1911 > image 643 of 752; citing NARA microfilm publications M1461, M1463, M1464, and M1465 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

See also: "Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99DQ-2SXK-9?cc=2185163&wc=3KMC-3TG%3A1018494101%2C1018632301 : 9 October 2015), (M1461) Soundex Index to Canadian Border Entries through the St. Albans, Vermont, District, 1895-1924 > Roll 132, D650 Napoleon-E130 William > image 1040 of 5228; citing NARA microfilm publications M1461, M1463, M1464, and M1465 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

 

Comments

i read one of the immigration related links you share but it looks like tath heinrich instead of father heinrich, so i'm a bit confused there.  it's true that peter had a brother named gottleib, and i think he married one of amalia's sister

---

The Soundex index card usually matches the manifest in reference to nearest relative from country they came from. The first link indicates "Father: Heinrich", and then if you click the arrow to next page on the manifest you will see the same information as the Soundex card on brother Gottlieb (spelled Gottleib). So now you will be able to do the research on the three brothers to find any more details on their parents (obituaries, SSindex, etc.) The second page of the Boston manifest lists Carl and Peter bound to G Ehof in Winnipeg. It looks like two Carls to rule out: Carl Ehoff (b. 6 Apr 1884 d. 1928) died in Fresno, CA and another Karl Ehoff died in Winnipeg (b. 17 Oct 1883 d. 1948). Most likely Karl in Winnipeg? You should have some DNA matches to both families, so that should help too. A tree in Ancestry lists Gottlieb Ahoff (1886-1964 Winnipeg) married to Elizabeth Filbert. Gary will hopefully have something on your family. Happy researching!

---

Gottlieb is one of peter's brothers. i already knew about him marrying  elizabeth filbert. i think liz was amalia's sister. what i'm stuck at is finding whether peter's dad name was michael or heinrich, and who peter's grandparents, great grandparents etc. are

---

Katy,

Most on WikiTree, especially in Volga German research, have found that researching as much as possible on the siblings gives you the most valuable research as well as networking with your DNA matches. I've already suggested contacting Gary Martens, which is the only next step for you to take. He has a personal database and may be able to give you additional information on your pedigree and fill in the gaps.