Letters to der Staats-Anzeiger

Der Staats-Anzeiger was a German language newspaper published in Rugby and later Bismarck, North Dakota, in the early 1900s. Germans from Russia wrote letters to the newspaper as a method of communicating to friends and relatives in South Russia, South America, Canada and the United States. I have been participating in a project by the GRHS to translate and publish those letters on the GRHS website. Joseph Merck wrote a number of letters to the newspaper during the period the family was in Argentina and in the early days after moving to North Dakota. His brothers-in-law (Eberles) were also frequent correspondents from North Dakota and Oregon during that period. Two letters translated this week have been added to the group that are now available at the GRHS website to members of that group.

Next NDSU Tour Set

The North Dakota State University Libraries announced sponsorship of their 13th Journey to the Homeland: Germany & Ukraine Tour for May 17-28, 2007. The tour includes May 18-22, Odessa, Ukraine and the former Bessarabian, Black Sea and Crimean German villages; and May 22-28, Stuttgart and Wiesbaden, Germany and Alsace, France. Leading the tour will be Michael M. Miller, Germans from Russia Bibliographer.

Tour members will attend the large Germans from Russia gathering called the "Russlanddeutschen Bundestreffen" on May 26-27, 2007, at Wiesbaden, Germany. The NDSU Libraries will sponsor the Amerika Haus information tables at this event. More than 20,000 persons are expected to attend. Many of these have immigrated to Germany from the former Soviet Union since the late 1980s and are seeking their long lost relatives in Canada and the USA.