[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] EV. LUTHERAN CHURCH RECORDS

[lois bolnick]

Thank you, Robin, for helping me to try and find my relatives from Volhynia..  As I stated in my original post, I am up in my 80s and know VERY little about all the changes that occur daily on IT.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading ODESSA3.ORG .  Unfortunately, my relatives were not part of that group.  However, My relatives (HALB and PYK/PIECK) were in Eureka, Dakota Territory at the same time the GR were flowing into this territory.

My relatives had homesteaded in Tyndall, Bon Homme, Dakota Territory from 1873-1885 (this was in the southern part of what is now South Dakota) and moved to Eureka.  Two children were born there in 1885 and 1888.  Their oldest daughter was married in Eureka in 1889 in her father's house.  The whole family, including the newly married, then moved, almost immediately, to Swanwick, Perry, Illinois.  I am surmising that they, not being GR, they did not "fit in".  I often wonder why they went to Illinois.  I have found no other relatives there.

Can you tell me just what VOLHYNIA territory comprises.  I am not familiar with that area.  I guess that is why I have never known where to search for records.  Only on the 1880  Bon Homme census did Mrs. Halbe (Pieck) say she was from RUS/POLAND.  All their other  censuses said they were from Germany.

Here is my original email to Ger-Poland-Volhynia.

I have had copies of the 2 films (FHC 1945745 and 1945746) for about 6 years.  These are birth index films.  One side of the  film is for the right side and the other film is for the left side of the church record.  Both my grandmother and great grandmother were on the same films.  Talk about luck!  
 
My only clue to find my grandmother and great grandmother was that I had a copy of THE PERMISSION TO GO ABROAD.  It was issued by Sudargen town officials in May 1871 and signed by the pastor of the Protestant Lutheran Church of Szaki (Sakiai) and Sudargen (Sudargas).  I was told that the church was heavily destroyed in WWII and that records probably did not survive.  Can anyone confirm this?  Where can I try and locate more records?
 
My ggrandmother Emilie Berta PYK (Pieck) was born 9 March 1850.  Parents:  Jan Ferdinand and Henrika Hu?sing.  My grandmother Joana Friedrika Halbe was born 24 July 1868:  Parents: Friedrik Gustav and Emilie Berta PYK (Pieck).
 
Gustav Halbe emigrated to the USA on the Ship Borussia and arrived New York 27 March 1868.  German passenger list stated from Konigsburg (Kreis?).  Emilie and daughter Joana emigrated to the USA  on the ship Hammonia and arrived in New York 12 Oct 1871.
Passenger list (German) stated from Lasdehnen (East Prussia).  All church, census, naturalizatrion, death certificates state from Germany.
 
I am in my 80s and just don't know how to proceed with this.  Any suggestions?   

Lois