The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection is pleased to provide a re-print of this outstanding family history, Twice Pioneers. In 2008, Irvin M. Schmidt gave permission to GRHC to make this family history available. Irvin was born on March 6, 1932, and passed away on February 16, 2009.
On the book's cover is printed: "The story of twenty-six German-Russian families and their inter-relationships as they migrated from the Rhineland Palatinate, Baden and Alsace to Russia in 1809 and again to Morton County, North Dakota in 1900, including some 2,400 descendants of Maria-Eva (Schüler) Bühler-Geiss-Gustin (1819-1887), who was an orphan by age two and an only child."
The compiler provides chapters on the first emigration of the late 1700s, the first emigration for the families of 1) Nicklaus Bender (1800-1850), 2) Jakob Bühler (1848-1908), 3) Philipp Bühler (1815-1848), 4) Philipp Bühler (1846-1925), 5) Joseph Geiss (1805-1853), 6) Bartholomeus Gustin (1826-1897) and 7) Andreas Renner (1818-1897).
Chapter 10 (pages 298 to 483), The Ancestors and their Descendants includes: 1) Georg-Jakob Anton (1766-1809); 2) Frank Bender (1814); 3) Matthäus Berger (1760); 4) Oswald Bühler (1791); 5) Johannes Bullinger (1791-1844); 6) Adam Eckroth (1785); 7) Joseph Forster (1811); 8) Lorenz Geiss (1777); 9) Johann Helbling (17??); 10) Michael Hellman (1788-1835); 11) Franz Leinz (17??); 12) George Leingang (1791); 13) Heinrich Loran (1786); 14) Martin Renner (1766); 15) Johannes Röther (1782); 16) Andreas Schaf (1752-1795); 17) Michael Schafer (1780); 18) Joseph Schmidt (1761-1813); 19) Paul Schmidt (1761-1813); 20) Johann Wetsch (17??); 21) Michael Yantzer (17??); 22) Georg Zander (1788).
The Name Index includes these families: Bender, Bühler, Bullinger, Glaser, Gustin, Helbling, Leingang, Renner, Schaf, Schmidt and Yantzer. Chapter 11 (pages 485-608): The Cast of Characters states: "This chapter is an alphabetical list of everyone who has been referred to in this book (approximately 6,500 people). It is an extension of the descendant lists, and shows more detail than those lists, including parents of in-laws and places of birth, death and marriage."
Irvin Schmidt concludes this excellent work with Chapter 13: German-Russian Cooking, selected recipes including Zwiebelkuchen, Buabaspitzle, Spätzle, Kartoffelsalat, Borschsupp, Pfeffernuesse, Schneeballa, Plazinta, Kaseknepfle, Fleisch Kuchele, Zukerkuchen, Schupffnoodle, Dampfnoodle, Molasses Cookies and Zwetschgazipfel.
