Bessarabian Villages

Quick links: Village lists, movement of colonists, maps, histories, other resources, photos, outside links, main Bessarabia research page

The links on this page focus on info about the villages themselves - maps, history, photos, statistics - but usually do not include specific family names.

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Village name lists

• Bessarabia and Dobrudscha village data sheets (which include basic info about each village and research help)

• Bessarabian village list (includes postal area, Kreis, parish, founding year)

• German-Russian village list (very comprehensive list covering not only the Black Sea regions, but also Volga, Siberia, etc.)

Movement of colonists

• Movement of Colonists within and to Bessarabia (new August 2011)

Maps and map indexes

Indexes:

• Map indexes for Bessarabia villages

• Map indexes for Dobrudscha villages with cross-reference by surname

• Map index for Eisenau, Bukovina

•   List of maps on film T81-318 (compilation of above Bessarabia & Dobrudscha maps)

Village plat maps:

• Village plat maps available online

• Village plat maps - not online, but available in the GRHS Library

• Other maps available in the GRHS library

• Bortscheag Estate map from Elvire Necker-Eberhardt's Korner

• Sangerowka village map from Elli's Korner

Other:

• Stumpp map of Bessarabia

• 1883 map of Bessarabia showing districts

• Map of Central Europe about 1910 (great detail and usually uses German village names)

• GRHS Clearing House map projects

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Village histories & statistics

• 1819 division of Bessarabian villages into 2 parishes (archive document 6-1-1245)

• 1825 request to establish a soap factory in Tarutino (archive document 6-1-1830)

• 1848 village histories (includes all villages, not just Bessarabia villages)

• 1868 Neufall contract for land from Elli's Korner

• 1923 article/history for Alt Posttal's 100th anniversary (from the German newspaper "Bessarabian" in Tarutino)

• 1933 history of Alexanderfeld (from "Der Staats Anzeiger")

• WWII village reports (includes statistical and general information about the people and industries of each village)

• Village timelines for Benkendorf, Demir-Chadschi, Hoffnungstal, Katzbach, Mannsburg, Neufall, Sangerowka, Teplitz, Wittenberg

• Allen Konrad's Korner has info on several Bessarabian villages (including Arzis, Hoffnungsfeld, Katzbach, Maraslienfeld, Neu Posttal)

• Some of the DAI films also have info about Bessarabia & Dobrudscha villages

• 1994 Return to Tarutino by Mark Suko, from the Dale Wahl Collection (4 MB pdf file)

 

Other village resources

• The Bessarabien Heimatmuseum (Stuttgart, Germany) has a number of Heimatbücher (or Orts Chroniken) for specific Bessarabian villages. A few of these books are also available in the GRHS library. They are excellent sources of information about the history of the village, although most are in German. Also check with the Village Coordinator for your villageas they may know of other useful books.

• Some Heimatbücher have been indexed by family.

• The KulmHeimatbuch is online at Allen Konrad's Korner

• The Homeland Book of the Bessarabian Germans by Albert Kern contains valuable history about each of the Bessarabian villages. It is available in the GRHS Library and GRHS Store.

• Bessarabia Homeland of a German Minority

 

Photos

• Photos of Bessarabian villages

• Village photo gallery (includes villages outside of Bessarabia)

 

Links to Bessarabia village pages outside GRHS

• Borodino by Judy Remmick-Hubert

• Klöstitz by Ingrid Reule

• Scholtoi by Olaf Hollinger (German version is more extensive than English version)

• Sangerowka by Ralf Voss (German)