[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] history of German Volhynia population
Jerry Frank
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca
Sat Oct 6 08:50:32 PDT 2007
At 05:38 AM 06/10/2007, Sharon Kitter wrote:
>Hi list!
>
>This is a bit off topic, but can someone give me a brief history of why
>the Germans migrated to Volhynia or give me the names of some
>books/sources (in English) where I can read about it? I have discovered
>that both sets of my paternal grandparents either were born there or
>their parents were. I have no idea what this area is except that the
>borders changed a lot ( Poland/Russia/(Germany?)). It makes it very
>confusing for me to figure out what is going on. Also, I would just like
>to understand were they came from.
>
>Thanks much,
>
>Sharon Kitter
Your questions are quite appropriate for this mailing list.
For general history and boundary changes, I recommend "Historical
Atlas of East Central Europe" by Paul Magocsi. It is usually
available from http://www.genealogyunlimited.com for purchase. Many
libraries will have it and, if they don't, they should. You don't
have to read the entire book. It is nicely split up into periods of
time and location which makes it easy to follow. Contains numerous
colourful maps and easy to read brief descriptions.
Very briefly, historic Volhynia is that part of northwestern modern
Ukraine from a short distance west of Kiev to the border with
Poland. It was a province of Russia between the late 1700s and WW
I. It was split in half between Poland and Russia from 1920 through
WW II. Reasons for migration can be very complex depending on
circumstances, location and time frame. Basically, cheap productive
land was available in Volhynia through the middle 1800s and this
attracted a lot of Germans.
There is little English language reading material on this migration
topic. SGGEE hopes to fill that gap through publication of its
Journals. You can read them including all back issues by becoming a
member of SGGEE. There are a variety of articles, some general, some
very specific, along with family stories that will help to understand
the migration.
Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca
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