[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] german russians?

[Jack Milner]

A funny thing happened when I started researching my mother's side of 
the family and discovered she was born in Rovno, Poland.  Looking 
through Polish history as found in various publications, there wasn't 
much, if any, mention of an ethnic German population.  Same thing for 
Ukrainian history when I found  Rovno  was a city  in post war Ukraine.  
I was somewhat confused, but over time I discovered my mother was a 
Wandering Volhynian.   Other discoveries:

The Partitioning of Poland
German Migration to Volhynia
The Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
Polish-Soviet War 1919-1920.
The Aftermath of  World War 1 and Revolution in Russia
World War 2 and relocation.

Before all of this, I just told my Ukrainian friends my mother was 
German speaking, born in present day Ukraine, but was German, not 
Ukrainian. She came to Canada with her parents in 1907.  Now I just say 
they were ethnic Germans because Germany didn't become a country until 
1871.  Historically, ethnic Germans from Volhynia were Russian and then 
Polish citizens until WW 2.

For some additional interest about citizenship visit:

http://members.shaw.ca/d_y_g/5florentine.htm

History has a way to focus only on the subject of interest and some of 
the people spoken to by Gabrielle held that focus.

Yours truly,

Jack Milner