Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Our Trip to North Dakota - September 2011, by Bobbie Lane


My hubby, Dennis, has German-from-Russia ancestors, who lived in Volhynia, Ukraine. Some immigrated to the United States and lived in North Dakota beginning in the 1880s.

Last year we went to the Wells County Historical Museum in Fessenden for Dennis to finally meet a second cousin, once removed. They compared family notes for two hours, and I regret that we did not have a tape recorder with us. Dennis found his first photo of one set of his great grandparents, and the cousin gave him a 2011 book of plat maps and directory for Wells County. We also went to the German Baptist Cemetery, where Dennis found a great-great grandmother’s grave (1831 – 1914), but not her husband’s grave.

Our next stop was at the genealogy archives of North Dakota State University in Fargo. They were housed at the Institute for Regional Studies, located in the Skills and Technical Training Center just north of the main NDSU campus and the Fargo Dome. We spent a day there gathering about seventy copies of photos, plat maps, and historical data. The best find was the German Baptist Church Registry called “God Was There.”

Note:  CVGS solicited articles from the membership about Research Trips to put in a booklet displayed at the Escondido Family History Fair in March.  The authors of these articles are permitting them to be printed in the monthly Newsletters and on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog.  

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