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The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia Kansas Round‐Up of Chapters welcomes everyone to continue the Oktoberfest weekend in Hays Kansas by attending the 34th Annual AHSGR Round‐Up of Chapters in the meeting room of the Whiskey Creek Restaurant, 3203 Vine. The event will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 1.

The Kansas Round‐Up of Chapters is held annual in Hays and is hosted each year by one of the three active AHSGR Chapters: Hays, Topeka and Wichita. This year it is hosted by the Hays, Sunflower Chapter. The event consists of speakers and programs dealing with the history, folklore and genealogy of the Germans from Russia.

This year’s events include:

• “Getting the Most from the AHSGR Website” – Speaker, Hannah Witt, AHSGR, Lincoln, Ks.
• Video – “NORKA: Passage in Time” A document film of a German Russian village in 1921.
• “Powerful Voices on the Margins: A Presentation on Family, Oral, and Archival History”; “Dear
Children, Jakob and Amelie: Analyzing Personal Letters Sent from a Volga German Village”; ‐
Speaker, Speaker ‐ Tatjana Schell, North Dakota.
• “Volga German Use of Natural Resources: Limestone on the Treeless Great Plains” – Speaker – Guy Windholz, Hays, Ks.
• “Weihnachtzeit im Oktober”, Sunflower Chapter Members, Hays, Ks.
• Polka music provided by Galen Schmidtberger, Victoria, Ks.

Tatjana “Tanja” Schell was born and raised in Russia. Her family is originally from the Volga German village of Seewald, where they lived until September 1941, when the entire village population was deported eastward to the region of Omsk in western Siberia. After 25 years in Siberia, the family returned to their Volga homeland and settled in the village of Frank. In the late 1990’s, Tanja and her family left Russia for Germany.

After receiving her M.A. in English in Munich, Germany, she moved to Fargo, ND, in 2010 to pursue further academic education. For the past six years, she has been working toward her Ph.D. degree while also teaching college composition to domestic and international students at the North Dakota State University Department of English. Her dissertation project deals with personal letters sent from Kratzke, Russia, to Jacob and Amalie Jerger {nee Krug), an immigrant Volga German couple in the Midwest, in the 191 O’s through the 1930’s. Tanja is a Life Member of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. Several stories she wrote or translated have appeared in the AHSGR Journal.

For more information or registration information, contact Kevin Rupp at (785) 656‐0329 or [email protected].