Mike Brown of Wyoming began looking for Germans in Kazakhstan in 2016 and accidentally discovered a village that was founded by his relatives.
Brown knew the name of his ancestors’ colony was Bauer in the Volga region. Its Russian name was Karamyshevka, named after the river Karamysh that ran by the colony. What he didn’t know was that there was another Karamyshevka far from the Volga that was established in 1906 after land reforms had opened the area in Western Siberia for resettlement. He knew that it was likely that people from the Volga Karamyshevka who established the Kazakhstan Karamyshevka, and that some of them were probably his relatives. He was right.
Watch the AHSGR Treffen Tuesday presentation below where Brown tells the story of his visit to Kazakhstan this year and his visit to the village. A local TV news station also did a story on his visit, too.
The map has been updated to include the links to the videos.
Treffen Tuesday: A Quest for Relatives in Kazakhstan
Khbar News: An American Citizen Found the Cemetery of His Ancestors in Kazakhstan (English translation)