TO:
Krasna Researchers
FROM:
Ted J. Becker and Rosemary (Ternes)
Mack
Village Research Coordinators
Krasna, Bessarabia,
Russia
Emmental, Bessarabia,
Russia
Karamurat, Dobrudscha,
Romania
Date:
Fall, 2004
Much water has passed under
the bridge since last you received a newsletter from us. We hope all is well with you and those
you love.
Ted has a NEW e-mail
address, for those of you who use e-mail. It is
tbecker@nemontel.net
Ted’s mailing address remains
P.O. Box 1524,
Williston, North
Dakota
58802-1524
USA
Bob Schneider, manager of Schneider LLC Tours, Rapid City,
South Dakota, USA, will again be leading two tours to
Ukraine in
2005. Ted is planning to travel
with Bob on his 25 May 2005
– 9 June 2005 tour to
Ukraine. Bob assures Ted that he will arrange for
sufficient time for Ted and any others to visit Krasnoe (Krasna),
Ukraine, with
several overnight stays if so desired.
Ted invites you to visit Krasna with him, Bob and his tour group. Please contact Bob at
http://members.rushmore.com/~ukrainetours
or
Telephone:
605-722-7712
or
1649 North 3rd
Street, Spearfish,
South Dakota 57783 USA
In 2004, Tony Steinkey and his sister June McDonald and two nieces
accompanied Max Riehl and others from
Germany
to Krasnoe (Krasna),
Ukraine. June describes the trip as a
“pilgrimage”. We think her
description says it best about traveling back to one’s roots!
This past July, the Germans
from
Russia
Heritage Society held its annual convention in
Bismarck, North
Dakota.
Several Krasna researchers were in
attendance. We gathered for an
intimate, quiet supper on one of the evenings at the convention. The conversation was great. We strengthened the bond which ties us
Krasna researchers closer together by visiting,
talking, laughing, and enjoying each other’s company.
Nearly six years has passed
since we first inquired about gaining access to the Catholic church (genealogical) records held in the
Tiraspol
Consistory/Diocesan group of church books, which are located at the
Saratov
State Regional Archive
in Saratov,
Russia. During those years, you have received
from us several pleas for financial help so that we could acquire copies of
these records. We are happy to
report that in October 2004, we received the last group of extractions from
those diocesan church books. We
have received around 2,500 photocopies pages from these
books. Before the archive would
copy the respective pages, they would cover all other entries on the page except
those which pertained to Krasna. Thanks to the hard work of the archivist
in the archive, Tanya at MITEK in
Moscow,
Russia (our
intermediary), and Sergey Karamanov (our Russian
translator), we now have all of the entries from these diocesan church books
translated into English. Rosemary
has been working diligently with these translated records to accomplish two
things: 1) to take the data and
information from them and input them into our database (which we euphemistically
call “Krasna Master Census, 1814-1940”), and, 2) to
place the births/baptisms, the marriages, and the deaths into three separate
files, arranged chronologically.
In regard to the latter, it
is our intention to place these three files onto a CD-Rom. The records will then be made available
in an electronic version to researchers.
We will notify you when the CD-Rom will be available for purchase. At this point we do not know what the
CD-Rom may cost, but be assured that the cost will be nominal. We are not interested in making a
profit but in only helping researchers.
The extractions from the
Saratov
State Regional Archive
cover the years 1851 through 1916.
The archive does have the Tiraspol
Consistory/Diocesan group of records for the years 1917 through 1940. We chose not to acquire copies for those
years because we do have copies of the original church books St. Joseph Catholic
Church, Krasna, Bessarabia
(births/baptisms/marriages/deaths) for those years. You may recall that we do have English
translations of these church books available on floppy disc for
researchers. The archive has no
similar records for the years 1814 through 1850. By the way, some of the church books for
the years 1876-1878 are in such poor condition that the archivist copied from
them for us, rather to make photocopies.
We wish to extend a sincere
and heartfelt thank you to those of you who were so kind as to give us your
generous, financial help. We could
not have acquired the Saratov records without
your help. May God bless you for
stepping forward when we asked with your help, so that we can gather and
preserve these extremely valuable records. Words cannot express the gratitude we
have in our hearts for your support of the work we do. Thank you!! Krasna
descendants are the greatest people in the world!! God bless each and every one of
you! We may not have quite enough
money to pay for the translation of the final group of records. If you could send some additional
financial help, we can then pay the translator. We will need about $1,700.00
U.S.
Reuben Drefs shared with Ted a book entitled Die Mundarten der Deutschen Mutterkolonien Bessarabiens und ihre Stammheimat (The Dialects of the German Mother Colonies
in Bessarabia and their Home of Origin) written by
Albert Ecker.
The book he showed Ted is a 1974 reprint of the 1941 booklet, published
by N. G. Elwert of
Marburg,
Germany. Thank you to Ambrose Leinz for translating pages 53-59 into English. In these pages Mr. Ecker puts forth his argument that some of the original
settlers of Krasna may have emigrated from a small
area just south of Simmern, Germany, centered on two
villages, namely, Gmünden and Kirchberg. Ted
has looked at some microfilms he borrowed from the Family History Library at the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA,
which contain copies of some church books from the late 18th and
early 19th centuries for these two villages. So far he has not found any names among
the entries, which are similar to surnames associated with the original settlers
of Krasna.
He is continuing to look at more microfilms from the Family History
Library, though. Ted finds Mr.
Ecker’s argument compelling, though. He notes that in villages in that region
of
Germany
where Low German was spoken, he interviewed members of both the older and
younger generations. He noted a
considerable difference between the speech of the old and that of the
young. He speaks directly to his
premise that the original settlers may have originated from the region around
Landstuhl,
Germany. The section of the booklet, which
references the possible origination area of the original settlers of Krasna, is filled with innumerable examples of close ties to
the dialect spoken by the residents of Krasna.
The Krasna web site – http://14ushop.com/krasna - remains an
active site. About once a week
someone contacts Ted as a result of finding the Krasna
web site. Researchers from
Argentina,
Brazil,
Germany,
Canada,
as well as the
USA,
have found the web site and come to understand that we can be of help to them
with their research into their roots in Krasna. Recently, we revised the name-sorted
lists on the site to make the lists more current. For those of you who do not use
computers, you might find it interesting if you visited with a friend of yours
who has Internet access. Your
friend could show you the web site and all it has to offer researchers regarding
Krasna and its daughter colonies.
Ambrose Leinz and his wife Sybille continue to translate the
hundreds of newspaper articles we copied from microfilmed copies of the German
newspaper Staats Anzeiger.
Faustina (Dirk)
Chandler continues to
organize the English translations into separate files. When the translation and organization
work is completed, the translated articles will be made available to researchers
on a CD-Rom. I must say that the
articles, which begin circa 1907 and continue through 1940, are a mini-history
of Krasna all unto themselves. I have found a number of letters to the
editor, which my maternal grandfather as well as my maternal great-grandfather wrote to the editor of the newspaper. To read them is like hearing a voice
from the past.
Have a Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year. Above all, I wish
you
Peace