Introduction

I became aware of the Reinhardt Reunion Facebook group in 2016 when my mother unexpectedly crossed paths with a distant relative who is a fellow descendent of Henry and Elizabeth Reinhardt. My great-grandmother Alvina Reinhardt-Michel was the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth, and the mother of Leon Michel, my paternal grandfather. While I was growing up, I often heard it be said on my dad's side of the family that we are German and Russian. I did not fully understand what this meant, until several years ago, while looking for a long lost relative, I stumbled across a site containing geneological information meticulously collected and organized by professor Brent Mai of the Center for Volga German Studies. Because Brent and I share common relatives, much of the information Brent Mai has collected also applies to me and my family. Our common ancestors (paternal in my case), were originally from Germany, but immigrated to "Volga Russia" around 1766-1767 as part of a colonization effort promoted by Catherine the Great. This was approximately 10 years before the U.S. became a nation. Known as Volga Germans, they lived along the Volga River. They were persecuted, and eventually, some left Russia for the U.S., including my ancestors, who arrived in New York City around 1890 and settled in Kansas. Had my ancestors stayed in Russia instead, they would have likely been deported to Siberia and Central Asia beginning in 1941, when anti-German sentiment was made worse by Nazi Germany.

Interestingly, I have ancestors on both sides of my family who were German, ended up living in a territory owned by some other country, were persecuted, and migrated to the U.S. as a result, with their descendants ending up in Kansas. On the maternal side of my family, they ancestors were Germans who lived in Alsace, a territory disputed between Germany and France. In both cases, even though they lived outside of Germany, they maintained their German heritage.