[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] So much good info!

[Günther Böhm]

Andrew Wilm schrieb:

>it looks like I`ve also found the actual regiment of my
>grandfather. But I`ve also re-read the little bit of family history I do have
>and it says that my German ancestors settled in southern Russia.
>

Andy,
if your grandfather was a German (Prussian) soldier, he must have lived 
in Germany (Prussia) at least several years before. Could he have come 
with his parents from Russia to the Posen province and been drafted 
according to his age? As far as I know, Russian Germans were treated in 
Germany as natural Germans which included the duty of military service. 
Some weeks ago we had a diskussion on the reasons for Germans to leave 
Russia in late 19th or early 20th century. Maybe in your granfather's 
case the diphtheria epidemic and lack of medical treatment was one of 
them. But the main reason surely was the "russification" policy of the 
Russian Tzars Alexej III and Nikolaj II. Thus between 1900 and 1914 
4,900 German families and 26,000 German farm workers from Russia were 
allowed to settle in the eastern regions of the Posen province in order 
to form a German "cordon sanitaire" against the growing Polish 
nationalism. So they unfortunately fled from one nationalism to two 
others and from one military service to another (Wandering Volhynians). 
The ggrandmother of our foster-child came this way with her parents and 
siblings from Mankow, Kisielin, Volhynia to Loetzen, East Prussia in the 
very first years of 20th century.

Have a nice sunday,
Guenther