In 1763, Catherine the Great began to entice Germans to emigrate to Russia to farm the land, with the promise that they could maintain their culture, community, and religion (Lutheran).  My father's family were the descendants of these Volga Germans, the moniker given to the Germans that lived in the Saratov oblast on the banks of the Volga River for over 100 years.  My German ancestors left Russia in the 1880s for the US, passed through Ellis Island, and ended up in Lawrence, Kansas before migrating to eastern Washington state in the early 1900s where several hundred Volga Germans settled in Endicott, WA, and were the vast majority of inhabitants.  My father's family were wheat ranchers, likely what their ancestors learned to farm in Saratov, Russia, years earlier.  There was no electricity in Endicott, WA until the 1940s, and they lived a complete agrarian lifestyle. As a result, the town maintained its German culture well into the 60s and 70s.  As a child, I would visit my Grandma in Endicott as she cooked German food and spoke mixed German-English with everyone in town.  German sausage, made each year in early December in the smoke house shown, and just a few yards away from the house, was a favorite of everyone. 

– Phil Kleweno

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more