SPEAKER: Dave Obee

Dave Obee is a journalist and genealogical researcher who has written a dozen books and given more than 700 presentations at conferences and seminars in Canada, the United States and Australia since 1997.

Dave’s mother was born in a colony northwest of Zhitomir. He has visited that area several times, starting in 1995, and has also been to some of his ancestral areas in Poland, where his mother’s ancestors lived before Volhynia.

For six months in 2021 and 2022, Dave enlisted researchers in Zhitomir to obtain documents that were not available the last time he was at the archives. The work was completed in the middle of February, with 250 documents photographed on his behalf.

One week later, the Russian invasion started and the archives were closed. Since then, Dave has been sending money to his contacts in Ukraine, who are using it to buy medical supplies for the hospitals in Zhitomir, as well as other items that are short supply. (To help, contact Dave at daveobee@gmail.com)

Dave is editor and publisher of the Times Colonist daily newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He has worked as a journalist in British Columbia and Alberta since 1972, and has been researching family history since 1978.

Dave has received several honors over the years, including an honorary doctorate by the University of Victoria for his work as a historian, genealogist and journalist, as well as national and provincial awards for community service.

He was a member of the services consultation committee at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa for four years and is on the advisory committee for Ancestry’s Canadian site. Dave is a columnist for "Internet Genealogy" magazine .

"Driven by Faith: The Baptists and Mennonites in Ukraine"

Ethnic Germans went to Ukraine for two major reasons: economic opportunities and the chance to practice their chosen religions. The Baptists and Mennonites were after religious freedom, and they found it in Ukraine, although that freedom did not last. There are similarities between the two faiths, but also major differences, especially in terms of research possibilities for today’s genealogists.

SPEAKERS: Cynthia Spurgat Jacobson & Owen M. McCafferty

Cynthia Spurgat Jacobson, a founding member of the International Association of Germans from Lithuania (IAGL), has always been intrigued by the surnames that end in "-at". Her extensive research resulted in a 600-page fully cited book, The Three Spurgat Families from Wylkowiszki, in 2010, a 200-page Addendum in 2015, and a 2022 addendum, mostly focused on family members who did not emigrate. She maintained the blog, G-GLISP, German Lutherans in Suwalki Province from 2012 to 2021. As editor in chief of the "Die Weite," the IAGL semi-annual publication, she writes and edits articles.

Owen M. McCafferty started his genealogical research as a teen-ager, searching his maternal grandfather. What began as a simple search turned into a passionate search and lead him to become an accomplished researcher with a specialized interest and expertise in the ethnic Germans from southwestern Lithuania. In addition to founding the IAGL, Owen is also an active transcriber and translator for the IAGL’s online index of Lutheran church records from Lithuania, helping to index tens of thousands of records in an effort to help others learn more about their ancestor’s history.

"How Germans Came to East Prussia and Lithuania"
 
Migration patterns are important to family researchers. The variety of people who settled in East Prussia and Lithuania will be included. This presentation will also review a history of the duchy of Prussia, the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth, the Kingdom of Prussia, New East Prussia, (later southwestern Lithuania) Congress Poland, and the Russian Empire. A demonstration of the free online database www.germansfromlithuania.org from the International Association of Germans from Lithuania will explain how to find your family on the website, locate an inventory of the records, introduce non-church records, review a translation guide, and provide a free issue of "Die Weite," the semi-annual journal.

 

 

Speaker: Perry R. Buffie

Perry R. Buffie has a B.A. in psychology from the University of Minnesota, and a Doctor of Chiropractic from Northwestern Health Sciences University. He was trained as a medic by the U.S. Army Academy of Health Sciences.

A long-time history enthusiast, Dr. Buffie has returned to university, where he has obtained a master’s certificate in European History and is now nearing completion on a Master of Arts degree in European History from American Public University. His interest lies primarily in Eastern Europe.

He currently serves as the president of Galizien German Descendants, Inc., an international society dedicated to the research of the German colonists in the Austrian crown land of Galicia.

"The Josephine Colonies of Austrian Galicia"

Also known as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, the Josephine Colonies of Austrian Galicia existed from 1772 until the end of the First World War. Within Galicia were numerous colonies of German settlers, invited by the Habsburg emperors. This discussion will explore concepts such as:

• Where was Galicia and how did it come into being?
• Where did the German colonists emigrate from?
• Why did they emigrate and how did they get to Galicia?
• What was the long-term fate of those immigrants?  
  

Speaker: Gary E. Warner

Gary has been ardently involved in genealogy since 1971 when he finally discovered that his father was not born with the surname Warner, but instead the surname Jaeger.  He later discovered that his paternal grandfather used both the surname Jaeger and the surname Geiger, sometimes both in the same official document!

In July 1998, Gary went to the first meeting of many people who wanted to form the society that is now SGGEE.   He volunteered for the steering committee and because he was not quick enough to volunteer for another committee position, was elected the chairman of that committee.  He helped that committee form SGGEE that first year, and with his son, Matt Warner, set up the SGGEE website and acted as webmaster for the first 7 years of the existence of SGGEE.  Gary was President of SGGEE from 1999 to 2000.

He also has been, from the beginning, the SGGEE Databases Manager, and spends time almost every day in merging the Master Pedigree Database (MPD) and collating many of the other SGGEE databases.  He has also submitted his digital data to Ancestry and Family Search, and his DNA results to Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, and Gedmatch.

Gary is a registered civil engineer who has finally retired. In his extended family of siblings and cousins (including his mother’s Latvian kin), he is one of only two who is actively pursuing family history, and the only one actually doing research in Europe.  He has, however, trained all of his known relatives to send him updates on all births, deaths and marriages in the extended family.   It seems that most people want their information written down somewhere so that they can be remembered, even if they do not want to do the recording themselves.   

"Preparing for and submitting data to SGGEE for the Master Pedigree Database"

Gary will be leading a back-to-back presentation on the many elements for getting your pedigree data into the SGGEE database. Also covered will be hands-on work with a Legacy sample file, and how to use some of the source websites that are now available to us.

Speaker: Carolyn Schott

Carolyn Schott has researched her German ancestors for 20+ years, following their wanderings through Eastern Europe before arriving in the U.S. She is a founder of the Black Sea German Research Community (www.blackseagr.org), a former board member of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS), and author of the book, Visiting Your Ancestral Town. Her writing has received several awards from the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors.

Schott's research has required her to research records in the U.S., Germany, Ukraine, Moldova, and Poland. The Black Sea German Research Community is a website dedicated to helping people with hard-to-find information on their ethnic German ancestors who lived in areas bordering the Black Sea.

Carolyn has been speaking on genealogy-related topics since 2007 and has been a regular speaker at the Germans from Russia Heritage Society, the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia meetings, the International German Genealogy conventions, and genealogy societies in Washington.

"Expanding Your German Research Beyond Ancestry and FamilySearch"

All genealogy roads seem to lead to FamilySearch and Ancestry. But sometimes it pays to take a less well-traveled road when researching your German ancestors. We’ll discuss some of the powerful resources available for German researchers beyond the “standards”— such as the online Meyers Gazetteer, Archion, Matricula, Compgen.de — reviewing each resource and how to navigate them even if you don’t speak German.

Getting ready to cross borders

Plans for the 2022 SGGEE convention are coming together. The purpose of our theme, Crossing Borders, is to help us better understand areas in which our ancestors might have lived before moving into Poland and Volhynia.

So far, we expect to offer presentations on East Prussia and Lithuania, expanding your German research, Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ukraine.

We also plan to take advantage of smaller group discussions, offering participants the opportunity to hear from our member experts on the SGGEE Journal, navigating the databases on the website, preparing your data for submission to our member pedigree database and research hints in our primary areas.

As previously announced, we will do Q&A sessions on Friday to follow up on the webinars presented earlier in 2022. If you missed one, or have questions after having viewed the recordings, you can pop in and speak with the presenter. The three webinars are If It's 1773, It must be Russia on changing borders; Family Tree DNA and DNA Projects for SGGEE; and most recently, Navigating Online Records in Poland to Find Ancestors.

SGGEE members can view the recorded webinars using links from our virtual classroom page. By the way, our most recent webinar on using records in Poland is now posted; you'll want to view it more than once to catch the details!

Keep an eye on this space for announcements when registration opens.

Welcome!

The 2022 SGGEE convention will take place Friday through Sunday, Sept.  23-25.

Once again, we will be entirely virtual in consideration of potential health and travel disruptions due to ongoing concerns about the covid pandemic. We understand that many of you are looking forward to in-person conventions again. So are we! In the meantime, we hope to welcome members and guests virtually in September.

Our theme is "Crossing Borders" and refers to the fact that our ancestors in Poland and western Ukraine began their journeys in German areas around the edges. We are working on a program of speakers who will help us understand those areas.

On Friday, we are adding three "breakout rooms" to follow up on the virtual presentations given earlier in the year:

• If It's 1773, It must be Russia (January)
• Family Tree DNA and DNA Projects (April)
  
• Navigating Online Records in Poland to Find Ancestors (June)

SGGEE members continue to have access to the recordings of these presentations through our "Virtual SGGEE" web page. If you previously attended or watched the videos, and have more questions to ask, you can join the breakout room(s) of your choice on Friday and talk with the presenters. Alternatively, if you haven't viewed the recording, now's the time to watch and then join the breakout room to meet with the presenter, who will answer questions.

The weekend will include our convention speakers, the Annual General Meeting of SGGEE, and additional breakout rooms focused on how to make the best use of the various resources SGGEE offers.

We're pleased to offer our "Changing Borders" convention at no cost to all participants. However, only SGGEE members will have access to any handouts and recordings of the presentations.

If you join SGGEE in the convention month (September), your membership will take effect in October and remain valid through Dec. 31, 2023.

Watch our blog for updates along the way. And send questions or comments to convention-sggee@googlegroups.com.