[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] German Prussians vs German Russians

[Charlotte Dubay]

My four German grandparents all settled in the Dakotahs.

Two of my grandparents' families were from Prussia, one from Russia, and one from Switzerland. As late as the 1940s, I remember both Prussian families telling their girls that they could NOT date those Russian boys! The "German" families did not want to mingle with the "Russian" families. Not at barn dances, not at church. 

The German Swiss family? They didn't want their children to date either Russians OR Norwegians!! One of their sons loved a Norwegian, and the Swiss parents would NOT let them marry. They ultimately did, but had to separate at the court house. 

When my German Swiss grandfather wanted to marry my German Russian grandmother, the parents again tried to intervene. This time it didn't work. The couple left SD to farm in ND, where they lived happily ever after until death.

And then my mother did it. She married a German from Russia, which was generally frowned upon in ND even in the 1930s. She often times insulted him for his background, but pretty much lived happily ever after.

Me? I married a half German, some French, rest Scotch/English/Irish with maybe even a little Am. Indian in there -  60 years ago, so guess we lived "happily ever after". :) Our children skipped school on "Family Tree" days!

Charlotte 
hoeserhistory at aol.com

These stats may not be interesting to all, but I found them quite interesting myself: 
I recently read that ND and SD had more Germans settlers than any other states with MN not too far behind. Today, South Dakota is 40% German, and southern central part of North Dakota was known as "the German-Russian triangle". North Dakota registered the highest number percentage of German immigrants in 1910 for the mid states at 18 percent.