Brief History of Germans in Volhynia (J. Frank). . . . . . .

        Published by the Odessa Digital Library - 28 Jan 1998
             http://pixel.cs.vt.edu/library/odessa.html

        This document may be freely used for personal, nonprofit
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        in any form without permission of the copyright owner.

        Copyright 1998, Jerry Frank, 158 Glamis Terrace SW, Calgary 
        AL Canada, T3C 6V3, jfrank@cadvision.com

        Edited by: Marty McMahon

Volhynia is the northwestern most province of modern day Ukraine.  Poland
is on its western border with Belarus to the north.

For centuries Volhynia had belonged to the Lithuanian Commonwealth.  It
was later acquisitioned by Poland, through a marriage of royalty.  In the
first partition of Poland in 1772, the region was annexed by Russia.  It
stayed part of Russia until after World War I.  The Treaty of Versailles in
1920 split Volhynia in half.  The east remained part of Russia while the
west was returned to Poland.  After World War II, the entire region of
Volhynia was made part of Ukraine, which in turn was part of the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics.

There were Germans scattered throughout Volhynia, primarily in the Zhitomir
and Berdichev regions.  Mennonites attempted an early farming settlement
there but did not stay long.  The first major and more permanent migration
of Germans into Volhynia did not occur until the mid 1830s.  These were
primarily of the Lutheran faith.  By 1860, the German population was still
only estimated to be 4-6000.

After the 1863 rebellion in Poland, Germans began to flood into Volhynia.
Most of them settled in a broad band extending from Wladimir Wolhynsk in
the west to half way between Zhitomir and Kiew in the east.  By 1900,
census figures indicate there were approximately 200,000 Germans living
there.  In addition to Lutherans, many of these were now Baptist, Catholic,
Mennonite, Moravian, and Reformed.

The extractions in this list are from the bishop's office record books of
the St. Petersburg Lutheran Consistory, as microfilmed by the LDS church.
They generally cover the years 1836 through 1885, though some years are
missing.  The data was copied from original parish record books and then
forwarded by the local pastor to the bishop.  At this time the location of
the original parish books (which would contain significantly more detail)
is not known.


ST. PETE - VOLYNIAN  INDEXING   PROJECT
The names of all volunteers working on this project are  (as of Jan 2000):

Edie Adam                         Diethard Kolewe
Bruce Adolph                      Richard Kopp
Richard Benert                    Howard Krushel
Carol Gottschalk Burns            Patricia Loftin
Bill Fife                         John Marsch
Jerry Frank                       George Maser
Ren Frederking                    Dale Mattis
Ruth Freehling                    Al Meyer
Gordon Gitzel                     Lucille Pilutik
Hans-Dietrich Gronau              Pamela Rasfeld
Jackie White Hale                 Terry Smith
Leona Janke                       Pam Tanner
Carol Jones                       Dale Wahl
Tim Kihn                          Gary Warner