By Rebekah Ellis
Murphy News Service
This year the North Star Chapter of Minnesota celebrates its 35th anniversary.
One of 43 national chapters of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, the North Star Chapter seeks to preserve the heritage of Germans who emigrated from Russia to the Midwest beginning in the late 19th century.
The organization meets about six times a year, taking summers off, at Berea Lutheran Church in Richfield. It has a membership of 100 families, most of who are of German-Russian descent.
“It’s hard to find people who have your same background, so our monthly meetings are a lot of fun,” said chapter President Ron Scherbenski, who has been with the group for about ten years.
The chapter often hosts speakers, and past field trips include to a brewery and museum. Potlucks often involve a spread of German-Russian cuisine, such as sauerkraut, kuchen pastries and, of course, borscht.
But heritage preservation and borscht are not the only interests that connect members of the North Star Chapter. The chapter enables members to pursue their passions for genealogy by offering workshops, access to the library and other genealogy materials.
To join the North Star Chapter, membership is required to one of the two international societies, the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia or the Germans from Russia Heritage Society. The organizations offer more resources to explore family history, including records from the former Russian empire, translated documents and microfilms.
North Star Chapter members are encouraged to document their findings and report them to the international headquarters.
“It’s really educational. We keep discovering new things,” Scherbenski said.
New things such as discovering that your cousin is actually your brother, or learning nearly a quarter of your 33-student high school graduating class is related to you.
Who knew?
Not five-year chapter members Chuck and Vicki Kurle, until they discovered Vicki’s German ancestors actually came from Russia sparked an interest in exploring their family trees.
“We never ever thought there were any secrets in our families, a lot of people in genealogy find out things. We’ve heard a lot of stories,” Vicki said.
Chuck said he already knew about his German-Russian heritage, and together he and Vicki have traced their roots back to a marriage between their families in the 1700s.
Chuck previously served as the chapter’s chairman of membership. He said the group struggles to maintain membership numbers because the German-Russian descendants are increasingly spread across the country, instead of staying concentrated in the Midwest.
“There just aren’t very many young people that come to join, because they’re scattered all over, Chuck said. “And of course, young people don’t really care about their German from Russia heritage until they get to be in their 50s or 60s.” He added that a majority of the North Star Chapter’s members are in their 70s and 80s.
But any membership challenges faced by the chapter may serve to emphasize the importance of preserving German-Russian heritage.
At the beginning of its 35th anniversary year, the chapter released its first book of member stories, “Hollyhocks & Grasshoppers: Growing up German from Russia in America.” The book is available for purchase at northstarchapter.org.
Rebekah Ellis is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.