Publication and Presentation Timeline
2025
What They Carried: Storytelling Through Objects.A prayer book. A gold cross. A pair of socks. A sewing basket. A scrap of paper. This session will explore storytelling through the “eyes” of the treasured objects our Germans from Russia ancestors brought with them and left behind for their descendants. Part show-and-tell. Part how-to. Part what-if.
Presentation. Treffen Tuesday (AHSGR). April 29, 2025. Rewatch.
The Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire.
Presented as a timeline and illustrated with maps, this session provides a sweeping survey of the locations and history of where Germans settled and migrated within the context of the territorial evolution of Imperial Russia between 1721 and 1914.
Presented as a timeline and illustrated with maps, this session provides a sweeping survey of the locations and history of where Germans settled and migrated within the context of the territorial evolution of Imperial Russia between 1721 and 1914.
Presentation. American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) 55th Annual Convention. July 31, 2025.
What They Carried: Storytelling Through Objects.
Presentation. Foundation of East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS) 2025 Convention. August 7, 2025.
Presentation. Foundation of East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS) 2025 Convention. August 7, 2025.
The Geography of German Settlement in the Russian Empire.
Presentation. Foundation of East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS) 2025 Convention. August 7, 2025.
Presentation. Foundation of East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS) 2025 Convention. August 7, 2025.
2024
Black Sea Germans & Other German Colonists in Ukraine.Presentation. Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) Fall Virtual 2024 Course “Slava Ukraini! Genealogical Research in Ukraine.” November 5, 2025.Places of Memory: Mapping Your Germans from Russia Family History on Google MyMaps.Presentation. Foundation of East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS) 2024 Convention. August 8, 2024.
2023
Deportation Locations: Mapping Needles in Haystacks.Presentation. Southern California Chapter of Germans from Russia. September 16, 2023.Germans from Russia Settlement Locations Project.Presentation. Foundation of East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS) 2023 Convention. August 1–4, 2023 (pre-recorded presentation).Time Travel Using Historical Maps.Presentation Foundation of East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS) 2023 Convention. August 1–4, 2023 (pre-recorded presentation).Time Travel Using Historical Maps: The Black Sea Region.Presentation. Germans from Russia Heritage Society 2023 Convention. July 22, 2023 (virtual presentation).Workshop: Mapping Your Family History on Google MyMaps.Presentation. Seattle Genealogy Society German SIG. May 20, 2023 (virtual workshop).Time Travel Using Historical Maps.Presentation. Arizona Sun Chapter of AHSGR in Chandler, AZ. March 26, 2023.Places of Memory: Mapping Your Family History on Google MyMaps.Presentation. Seattle Genealogy Society German SIG. January 21, 2023 (virtual presentation).
2022
Time Travel Using Historical Maps.Presentation. North Texas Germans from Russia (dual AHSGR/GRHS chapter). September 25, 2022 (virtual presentation).Time Travel Using Historical Maps.Presentation. GR Wall Breaker Conference 2022, hosted by the Edmonton AHSGR chapter. September 10, 2022 (virtual presentation).Time Travel Using Historical Maps.Presentation. American Historical Society for Germans from Russia International Convention. July 29, 2022 (virtual presentation).
2020
Germans from Russia in America: An Ever Expanding "German-Russian Country", Sandy Schilling Payne. Germans from Russia Heritage Society Heritage Review, Vol. 50, No. 3, (October 2020): pp. 28-36Google MyMaps of Ancestral German Colonies in Russia: 1873-1939.Presentation. Germans from Russia Genealogy conference. September 12, 2020 (virtual presentation).Germans from Russia Settlement Locations in the United States: 1873-2020.Presentation. Germans from Russia Genealogy conference. September 11, 2020 (virtual presentation).Germans from Russia Settlement Locations: Mapping America. Sandy Schilling Payne. Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. Spring 2020. Volume 43, No. 1: pp. 16-24.
Mapping the Past in the Present: Germans from Russia Settlement Locations.Presentation. American Historical Society of Germans from Russia Edmonton Chapter. October 9, 2019, Edmonton, Canada (virtual presentation).Mapping America: Germans from Russia Settlement Locations.Presentation. American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. July 23-27, 2019, Lincoln, Nebraska.
2017
The Germans from Russia Settlement Locations Project, Sandy Schilling Payne. Max Kade Institute Friends of Max Kade Newsletter, Volume 26, No. 3, Fall 2017: p. 1, 4-6.Locating your Ancestral Villages on Google Maps: Germans from Russia Settlement Location Project.Presentation American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. August 30-31, 2017, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Karte der deutschen Ansiedlungen im Osten auf Google Maps (archived link), Brigitte Bornemann. Mitteilungsblatt des Bessarabischen Vereins e.V. 72. Jahr gang and Heft 08/August 2017.
Project Update: Germans from Russia Settlement Locations, Sandy Schilling Payne. Germans from Russia Heritage Society Heritage Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, (March 2017): pp, 4-5.Locating your Ancestral Villages on Google Maps: Germans from Russia Settlement Location Project.Presentation. Alberta Genealogical Society - Medicine Hat & District Branch. March 1, 2017, Medicine Hat, Alberta. Dennis Bender and Melvin Bender, presenters.
2016
Locating your Ancestral Villages on Google Maps: Germans from Russia Settlement Location Project.Presentation. Germans from Russia Heritage Society 46th Annual International Convention. September 8, 2016, Rapid City, South Dakota. Dennis Bender, presenter.John Althouse. Alberta Genealogical Society of Edmonton Branch, German Special Interest Group, My German Roots Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 6: pp. 21-24.Black Sea Region German Settlement Location and Current Name: Bessarabian, Beresan, and Crimean Villages, Dennis Bender. Germans from Russia Heritage Society Heritage Review, Vol. 46, No. 1, (March 2016): pp, 21-27Black Sea Region German Settlement Location and Current Name, Dennis Bender. Germans from Russia Oregon and Washington Chapter (G.R.O.W.) Newsletter, Vol. 15, Issue 2 (Jan.-Feb.-Mar. 2016): pp. 8, 11-12.
Presentation Descriptions
- Time Travel Using Historical Maps
- In this presentation, you will learn how to use information from the Germans from Russia Settlement Locations map to travel back in time and find your ancestral colonies on historical georeferenced maps. You will learn where to find detailed maps online, how to overcome language issues with technology, how to capture and enhance images, and how to properly cite the maps that you find.
- Mapping the Past in the Present
- This presentation reviews the technology behind the Germans from Russia Settlement Locations project. From aerial and satellite imagery, to Global Positioning Systems, to the internet and graphical WWW browsers, to Google and cloud-based web hosting, to recent georeferenced maps repositories that use historical map overlays, this session will highlight all that had to be invented in order for the maps project to exist.
- Mapping America
- This presentation outlined the research and purpose behind mapping the locations of the descendants of Germans from Russia who immigrated to the United States after their colonist privileges were revoked in the early 1870s during a nationalist movement in Russia under Emperor Alexander II.
- Locating Your Ancestral Villages on Google Maps
- This presentation documented the history, purpose, and goals of the Germans from Russia Settlement Locations project from its inception. It includes the research methods and sources used to locate German colonies in Russia, how they are mapped using Google MyMaps, a summary of the project's progress and a tour of the online map.
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Last updated 19 June 2025