20 December 2003

Germans from Russia

Mrs. Far Outlier is descended from a long line of Germans who first emigrated from the Black Forest in Wuerttemberg near the Rhine River to the wide steppes of Bessarabia just east of the Dniester River in South Russia (now Ukraine) during the early 1800s. They were encouraged to do so by Czar Alexander I, who exempted them from military conscription and other duties. When Czar Alexander II revoked their special status in 1876, they began emigrating to the prairies of Dakota Territory.

Update: The Argus has more.

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