By KEVIN RUPP
AHSGR Sunflower Chapter
If you’re planning to attend the AHSGR Convention in Hays from July 30 to Aug. 2, it’s time to get registered.
After June 15, registration increases from $100 for members/$120 for nonmembers to $125/$145.
Registration information is available at ahsgr.org. You can buy tickets through our online store, but make sure to watch your email for an information form after you register and fill that out; we need one form for each attendee. This is information regarding your ancestral villages and surnames, volunteering, and so on.
There also are options to register for individual days of the convention if you can’t attend the whole thing. And there will be Kindertag, a youth heritage day, Aug. 1. More information about that is available at https://echshays.org/2018-2/kindertag/.
We’re very excited about the list of presentations planned. There still may be a few tweaks here and there, but here’s the current itinerary:
Maggie Hein: Finding Your Ancestors’ German Origins
Terry Needham: When I Was a Child – the Story Behind the Story
Ulrich Merten: The German Russian Communities in the Age of Stalin’s ‘Great Terror’
Patty Nicholas (FHSU Ethnic Studies): A Roomful of History – The Volga Germans of Ellis and Rush Counties in Kansas
Olga Litzenberger: Germans in Russia: History Milestone (Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Volga Germans’ Autonomy)
Masterpieces of German Religious Architecture on the Volga
Eric Schmaltz: Remembering a ‘Ravaged Century’: The German Colonies Caught in ‘The Storm’ of the Russian Revolution (July 31 keynote)
Letters to Pauline (Schlegel) Lehl: Volga German Family Correspondence from Russia to Oklahoma, 1913-1937
Lee Macklin: DNA I: The Basis of Life
DNA II: Analyzing Your DNA Results
Peggy Goertzen: Ethnic Clothing for Mennonites and Other Germans from Russia
Panel title: Mennonites in Russia after the Revolution
Norma Pipkin: The Immigrant Woman
Terry Batt: Dutch Hop: Music of the Volga Germans
Michael Wanner: History of HFDR (Historical Research Association of Germans from Russia)
Alex and Nancy Herzog: Lives of Ethnic Germans in Soviet Exile during and after WWII
Tanja Nyberg: 80th Anniversary of Sandamokh Massacre
Sisters Alice Ann Pfeifer, Mary Ann Schippers & Mary Elise Leiker: Religious Persecution of Germans in Siberia
Michael Brown, Sue Nakaji, Peggy Goertzen and Christina Zahn panel discussion: Effects of Russian Revolution on German Colonies
Brent Mai: Volga Famine Relief
Karen Schutt: Book talk
In addition to the presentations, of course, the convention will feature our AHSGR Bookstore, Research Room and Heritage Hall. There will be tours of historical and cultural sites in Hays; you have to register separately for those, and some have participant limits. We’ll also have music, food and lots of time for fellowship and networking with your fellow GRs.
The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is hosting their International Convention July 30 through August 2. You can find convention and registration information at AHSGR.org.
In association with the AHSGR and our local AHSGR Sunflower chapter, Ellis County Historical Society is hosting a Kindertag, a Youth Day that will focus on German traditions. Children ages 5-14 are invited to spend August 1 with us at ECHS to learn about German music, dance, and games; folktales and German words; daily life for the early Volga German settlers in Ellis and Rush counties; and German recipes. Many hands-on activities will give the participants experience, including making and eating grebble.