WLM | generations
much attention. Western Europeans
were encouraged to migrate to
Russia, with perks being political
autonomy, religious freedom, land
and exemption from military service.
Germans in particular responded to
the opportunity.
Albert & Huldy Lena Stover, Al Stover, Henry & Christina Troudt
grandparents, were married
in 1891, both at the age of 21.
They had six children: Adam,
Lillie, Herman, Hulda Lena (or
Huldy, born in 1901, my greatgrandmother), Fred and Eunice,
and later moved to Superior,
Nebraska. Huldy married Albert
Stover, my great-grandfather, in
the early 1920s, bearing three
daughters then moving to Kearney,
Nebraska, where my grandfather,
Albert, was born in 1934.
Going back and looking at previous
generations to Henry and Christina,
I see that my ancestors traveled to
Norka, Russia in the second half of
the 1700s from Baden-Wurttemberg,
Bayern, Hessen and Oberhessen
sections of Germany. These early
generations were responding to the
manifestos of Tsarina Catherine
the Great of Russia – the first was
issued December 4, 1762, and didn’t
gain much response; the second,
issued July 22, 1763, garnered
Tsar Alexander II revoked the
privilege in the second half of the
19th century, and immigration
from Russia to the United States
began, my ancestors with them. “In
1872 a large wave of emigrating
of Germans from Russia began.
There was a growing sentiment
of hostility towards foreigners,
particularly Germans, and a policy
of Russification was adopted to
make the populations in the empire
become more Russian,” says the
American Historical Society of
Germans from Russia (AHSGR).
The immigrants migrated
particularly to Midwest America,
as the topography and agricultural
opportunities greatly resembled
what they had left behind in Russia.
Established in Colorado in 1968,
the American Historical Society of
Germans from Russia (AHSGR)
was established “…to discover,
collect, preserve and disseminate
information related to the history,
cultural heritage and genealogy of
Germanic settlers in the Russian
Top: Ilene, Velma and Arlene Stover; bottom: Albert, Hulda Lena, Al Stover
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