Black Sea Migrations from Who are the ?

• Settled in areas around the Black Sea beginning in the 1780s • Spread throughout the region (1820s-1890s) • Immigrated to North & South America, beginning in the 1870s • Forcibly deported and resettled (1920s-1940s) Black Sea German regions https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Sz-Sn4I1F-iqS2sNeeTPZ6- Jd8I&z=5&ll=47.50545124276474%2C35.804003906250045

Jekaterinoslaw region

Bessarabia

Crimea

Dobrudscha

South Caucasus

Source: www.germansfromrussiasettlementlocations.org/p/maps.html How do Black Sea Germans relate to Poland? Migration from Poland to the Black Sea Key dates

Year Event Impact 1772 West created Settlers arrive from Wuerttemberg & (1st partition) Baden, especially around 1780. 1793 created (2nd partition) 1795 New Settlers from started created and South arriving 1795. Prussia expanded Settlers from Wuerttemberg & other (3rd partition) areas started arriving 1800. 1806 South Prussia becomes German settlers now subject to Polish Duchy of nobles, not Prussian agreements. 1812/1813 Russia takes control of Germans in receive Duchy of Warsaw and invitation to move to Bessarabia Bessarabia Map of

Map: https://www.britannica.com/event/Partiti ons-of-Poland Life in South Prussia • Settlers arrived 1795-1800 • Promised land, when land in was scarce. • Received 6-year exemption from rents & taxes • Often received forested, not arable land 1806-1812: The tipping point • defeats Prussia, and South Prussia becomes the Duchy of Warsaw • 6-year rent/tax exemption expires • Polish nobles demand full payment • 1807 is a drought year, failed crops • French troops went through the area to advance and retreat from Russia 1811-1812. • Dominance of Catholic church Migration to the Black Sea area

1809

1813

Map source: CIA World Factbook 1813: Russia lures German settlers • Opportunity to own, not lease, land • Freedom from taxes/debt payment for 10 years • Financial assistance and daily food allowance until first harvest • Exempt from military service and quartering of military • Keep religious customs and language Moving out • 1813: Tsar Alex’s invitation; 200 families leave • 1814: About 1700 families leave South Prussia and East Prussia • All leave under “leadership of a Russian official” and with “written privileges” from the Tsar • 1814-1816: Arrived in Moldovan villages on Dniester The Journey

The Journey Bessarabia: the “promised land” Bessarabia: Early years • 1828: Russo-Turkish war and billeting troops • 1829, 1831 – human epidemics • 1829, 1832, 1837,1846 – animal epidemics • 1821-1825, 1832-1833,1847 – full or major crop losses • First debt payments due government about 1824 (Received debt relief for another 10 years) Migrations in the 1830s • Cholera epidemic wiped out families in Bessarabia • Polish revolution in 1830 • Result: More settlers from Poland and Odessa region came to fill in farms that had been emptied Times change

1870s: Loss of special colonist status and military exemption

Emigration from the Bessarabia • 1880s+: U.S. and Canada • 1885+: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay

About 20,000 emigrate through 1940 The perilous 1900s

• Suspicion against Germans for not assimilating and possible WWI collaboration • 1909: Bill drafted to keep Germans in Bessarabia from acquiring land • 1915: Land liquidation law • 1916: Order to deport Bessarabian Germans east • 1917-1918: Bessarabia ceded to Romania 1940: Luck seems to run out • June: Soviets invade Romania (inc. Bessarabia) • Romanian officials flee

BUT… • Nazis/Soviets negotiate for evacuation of German population • Resettled in September-November Resettlement • 1939-1944: Nazis expelled /Jews from Warthegau • 1941+: Most Bessarabians settled in Warthegau; some farther east near Zamosc • 1945: Flight to Germany to escape Russian army Back where they started from: Warthegau region of Poland

Source: Lonio17, Wikimedia Commons Black Sea German Genealogy Research

Available records determined by fate of each region • Bessarabia & Dobrudscha: Romanian 1918-1940; resettled to Poland in 1940

• & South Caucasus: Deported to and in 1941

• Odessa region: Occupied by Nazis in 1941; Trek to Germany/Poland in 1944 Genealogy records

Resettlement • EWZ records • Koblenz records Soviet times • Repression records Compilations • Glueckstal Point of Origin file • Mennonite resources Other • Church records • Censuses Matrix of Black Sea German research resources EWZ records

• EWZ = Einwanderungszentralstelle or Central Immigration Control Department • Includes pedigree, personal info; sometimes includes photos, application for passport, personal history • Indexes in Black Sea German database • Covers many regions 50 - Russia, Odessa 51 - Bukovina, Bessarabia, and Dobrudscha 52 – Poland, 53 - Baltics 57 - index cards (emigration and health) 58 - family group sheets Koblenz records

The Bundesarchiv films from Koblenz are resettlers’ questionnaires for Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Dobrudscha.

The information on the Koblenz questionaires consists of: • Name, birth and death date and location • Occupation • Information on children and on parents (3 generations) • Ahnentafel • Information on emigrating ancestor

Indexes in Black Sea German database Repression records Glueckstal Point of Origin file Census record Church records

Lutheran • Original records • St. Petersburg Consistory duplicates • Family books

Catholic • Death records from Tiraspol diocese 1865-1880 • Database includes 2.4 million individuals in 510 trees • Combination of personal trees and record extracts

www.blackseagr.org Example search: Lydia Siewert Learn web page Example personal record Special convention price: 2nd edition $10