TO:                 KRASNA RESEARCHERS

FROM:            TED J. BECKER and ROSEMARY (TERNES) MACK

                        VILLAGE RESEARCH COORDINATORS

                                    Krasna, Bessarabia, Russia

                                    Emmental, Bessarabia, Russia

                                    Karamurat, Dobrudscha, Romania

DATE:            SUMMER, 2003

 

Of you 143 Krasna researchers who received the Winter/Spring 2003 Krasna Newsletter in which we asked for financial help to try to raise $9,000.00 U.S.,

20 of you so far have given $2,175.00 U.S.  We wish to publicly thank those of you who have helped so far.  They are:

Rosemary Mack              Leonard Kopp                        Katherine Nagel

Dennis & Diane Seifert            John Schaff                          Leo Ternes

Carl Mack                              John & Ann Riehl               Mary Bueling

Michell Heidrick                      Ambrose Leinz                      Eva Hauschild

Sharon Wingenbach                Aubrey Marthaller               Terry Deichert

Alex Braun                             Marie Langlois                      Deana Chandler

Joachim Bohn             Heimatmuseum der

  Deutschen aus Bessarabien (Ingo Isert)

May God bless you for all you do to help gather and preserve our common Krasna Germans from Russia ancestry and heritage!

If everyone who receives this Newsletter could help with at least $75.00 U.S., the records from the Saratov Archive could be acquired.  These records are absolutely vital to the work we do to “gather and preserve” the history of Krasna and its daughter colonies.  Should you wish to send your financial help, please send your check or money order to

                                                Ted J. Becker

                                                P.O. Box 1524

                                                Williston, ND 58802-1524   USA
Please make your check or money order payable in U.S. funds to “Ted J. Becker”.  If it is made out to something like “research fund”, my bank will not cash it.  As has been mentioned so often, all of your financial help goes toward the purchase of the records from the Saratov Archive.  None goes for any other purpose.  This archive is quite possibly the last source we may find for genealogical data and information for Krasna.  We believe that we must acquire copies of these documents NOW, for we may not have any chance again to acquire them.  That is why it is so important that we get financial help from you by about September 2003.

We have not yet heard from MITEK in Moscow about the extractions from the church books in the Tiraspol Consistory group of documents in the archive in Saratov, Russia.  Generally the archives in Europe and Russia close for the summer.  Insufficient money to pay staff necessitates that they do so.  We know that patience is a virtue when it comes to trying to get copies of records and documents from archives in Russia.  Staff members in these archives have a different mentality than you and I do.  We desperately need copies of these documents.  They view our request as just another workday.  And so we wait!     

Accompanying this Newsletter you will find an informational sheet and order form for the English translation of Ostdeutsches Schicksal am Schwarzen Meer entitled East German Fate by the Black Sea.  This is the excellent book written by the late Rev. Dr. Johannes Florian Müller.  What is quite unique about the English translation is the fact that with his permission, Rosemary and I made corrections to a number of areas in the book.  These corrections come from the “Krasna Master Census, 1814-1940”, which she and I have been developing for the past 12 years or so.  There are also other areas in the book in which corrections were inserted due to the fact that since the original book was published in 1981 new documents and information has come to light.  Dr. Müller’s years in a Romanian prison tempered his will to write about unsere leute (our people), their ancestry, their lives and their heritage in Krasna, Emmental and Karamurat.  We feel that the English translation “does him proud”.

The North Dakota State University Libraries will sponsor the “Journey to the Homeland:  Germany and Ukraine Tour” for 25 May – 7 June 2004.  This tour will include stays in Budapest, Hungary, Odessa, Ukraine, the former Bessarabian, Black Sea and Crimean German villages, Stuttgart, Germany, and Alsace, France.  Leading the tour will be Michael Miller, Germans from Russia Bibliographer.  He may be contacted at N.D.S.U. Libraries, P.O. Box 5599, Fargo, ND  58105-5599 (Telephone:  701-231-8416 or E-mail:  michael.miller@ndsu.nodak.edu  Additional information about the tour is located at

                        www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc/outreach/journey/index.html

Another group of interested travelers from Germany will travel to Krasnoe, Ukraine in 2004 also.  That year will represent the 190th anniversary of its founding as Krasna, Bessarabia.  A similar group travels there this year, 10 September 2003 through 17 September 2003.  The contact person for this year’s trip is Annemarie Schneider, Brewers Pfad 1, 56743 Mendig, Germany.  Her e-mail address is:

                                                cyberjoshi2000@yahoo.de

Generally Max Riehl has led this group every year since 1991.  I believe that if you are interested in accompanying this group this coming September, you will have to contact Annemarie by 8 August 2003.

            SCHNEIDER LLC (a tour company) is offering two, 17-day, tours to Ukraine, Crimea and Moldova in 2004.  The spring tour will be 18 May – 3 June 2004, and the fall tour will be 14 – 30 September 2004.  For tour information e-mail  rschneider@rushmore.com , write to Bob Schneider, 1649 N. 3rd St., Spearfish, SD 57783, USA, call him at phone 605-722-7712, or go to the web site

                                    http://members.rushmore.com/-ukrainetours

 

Peace.