[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Updated website

[Don Miller]

I just wanted to let you know that I have updated my website with a number of new resources, including:

1.  A complete listing of the 7,000 families whose land was expropriated in 1915.  (I have just learned that the archives in Kiev has a listing of the places to which the Germans were sent in Siberia and Central Asia.  I will check it out in May when I go to Ukraine again on one of my tours.  If this is the case, it will be a huge answer to the prayers of many Germans who suffered that fate).
2.  The Fate of the German Baptist Baptist pastors, 1921 to 1937.
3.  A complete listing of the Baptist pastors and churches they served from the founding of the Baptist movement in 1861/62 in Volhynia to the retreat/settlement of the Germans in November 11,1943.
4.  An interesting tour of Zhitomir with special attention given to German influences/happenings.  Lots of photos.
5.  A complete listing and brief report of findings of all the villages I've visited on my Volhynian Village Adventure Tours.  

AND MUCH MORE...

My new web site address is www.volhynia.org though it can still be reached at inthemidstofwolves.com

The web still needs a bit of tweaking and, of course, I will be adding additional material as I have time, but in the meantime, there's lots of stuff there that will be of interest to those who had families who were repressed in the 1930s and those having roots in the Baptist Church.  Incidentally, it was not until 1879 that the Russian regime issued an edict recognizing Baptists in the Russian Empire (includes Ukraine) as a legal religious body.  This gave Baptists freedom of religious expression and the right to establish their own civil registry.  Prior to that they were considered a sect and registered their vital statistics with the Lutheran Church.  The Baptists greeted the edict with mixed reactions, as it expected them to conform to its regulations, including the right to approve registration of churches, construction of chapels and schools and the calling of pastors.  As to the current discussion re registration of Baptists, I am happy to report that several years ago I found the birth dates of a number of my relatives in the St, Petersburg records and just recently another.  Now whether these people were Lutheran at the time of registration (mid-1980s) or Baptists is the question.  Regardless, its a rich resource.  I am still looking for the Baptist church books and am currently in conversation with the archivist in Odessa.  If and when we locate them, it will be huge.

Alles Gute!

Don Miller