Great Website for German/Russian Immigrant Ancestors
I came across another really interesting website today, called Odessa (http://www.odessa3.org). The Odessa website is an absolute goldmine of information about Germans who emigrated to Russia in the 1800s, and their descendants. There are digitized books and transcribed and indexed microfilm from the Family History Library for dozens of different areas and topics.
One of the main purposes of the website is to connect researchers to one another. Definitely read the “About Odessa” page to get an overview of the site and how to contact others.
The “Collections” page is where the bulk of the records are. You can click on the “Full Text Search” button near the top of the page to search for specific surnames. The results are displayed in a very easy to read list.
Records available on the site that have either been indexed or transcribed include census, land, cemeteries, family histories, church records, immigration/emigration records and more. There is even a section of .gedcom files for specific families.
The author of the website is Roger Ehrich, who hosts and manages the collections, and graciously shares all of this great information for free to anyone interested. If you have ancestry that includes German/Russian immigrants, you must check this website out!
I’ve included the address on my toolbar as well, for now under “Germany” in the “Free Sites” tab. The toolbar is a free download and easily uninstalled if you don’t like it. http://RelativelyCurious.OurToolbar.com/
I really appreciate your post on the Odessa region of the Germans to Russia. I have ancestors who went to the Volga River area so I started a group for Volga Germans on Genealogy Wise. There's an excellent site for Volga Germans through the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. I want to share a link to your post on Facebook! Thanks so much!