[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Benefits of SGGEE Membership

[gpvjem]

    The Board members of SGGEE feel that it is good policy to periodically remind Listserve subscribers not members of SGGEE, of the benefits and advantages to be gained with membership. 
    As a subscriber to Ger-Pol-Volhynia Listserve, you have access to many generous and knowledgeable people who are willing to freely share their knowledge and provide assistance where ever possible.  However much of the strength of SGGEE is in it's web site at www.sggee.org in the form of databases, maps, and research aids of all sorts, which can be accessed only when a member.
    There are two premier databases among several others.  The first is called the Pedigree Database (PD) which presently consists of roughly 300 thousand names extracted mainly from German Lutheran church records in Poland and to which are added the pedigrees of SGGEE members.  The uniqueness of this data base is that where ever possible all the data is merged into family groups and relationships where possible.  The second database of importance is called the Parish Records Index (PRI).  The PRI consists of names extracted from the indices of Polish German Lutheran records and so in reality is a large index of names indicating the film numbers in which they were found.
     The SGGEE "map room" contains a comprehensive  selection of Polish and Volhynian maps, not the least of which are recent maps prepared by Jerry Frank.
    Other research aids are too numerous to mention in this email.
        The Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe (SGGEE) is a _not for profit_ society, registered with the federal government of Canada.  It is administered by an elected Board of eight directors and several standing committees.   Money obtained from membership fees is used in large part to defray the cost of the information extraction process used to compile the databases, the publication of a quarterly journals and normal administrative costs such as postage etc.  Currently SGGEE is pursuing the acquisition of sizeable amount of data  hitherto unavailable, pertaining to Volhynian Germans for the period circa 1920s - 1980s.
    Annual membership fees (January to December) are Cdn$40 if living in Canada or US$30 for those living elsewhere.  As alluded to earlier, membership allows you full access to the entire SGGEE web site, including all quarterly journals published to date.
    Any queries regarding membership may be directed to membership at sggee.org 

John Marsch
SGGEE President.