Scheduled Events
President’s Message:
Canceling the Saturday, Mar. 21, North Star Chapter Meeting AND April 25th Spring Banquet
The North Star Chapter Board of Directors shared their concerns about having a chapter meeting on March 21 and Annual Spring Banquet on April 25th. We agreed that we should cancel these events, especially because our members are generally in a demographic group considered at high risk to complications from Coronavirus (Covid-19).
As a senior citizen with more than one factor that puts me at risk of contracting Covid-19, I appreciate the Board weighing in on this matter. We believe canceling these events is the most responsible action to practice social isolation as recommended by government and health care officials. We agreed cancellation - being prudent and looking out for the health and well being of everyone - is in the best interest of the chapter members.
For those who have already registered for the Spring Banquet, you will be contacted by Sue Ward to facilitate your refund.
Let’s all be safe.
Paul Maggitti, President
North Star Chapter of Minnesota
Canceling the Saturday, Mar. 21, North Star Chapter Meeting AND April 25th Spring Banquet
The North Star Chapter Board of Directors shared their concerns about having a chapter meeting on March 21 and Annual Spring Banquet on April 25th. We agreed that we should cancel these events, especially because our members are generally in a demographic group considered at high risk to complications from Coronavirus (Covid-19).
As a senior citizen with more than one factor that puts me at risk of contracting Covid-19, I appreciate the Board weighing in on this matter. We believe canceling these events is the most responsible action to practice social isolation as recommended by government and health care officials. We agreed cancellation - being prudent and looking out for the health and well being of everyone - is in the best interest of the chapter members.
For those who have already registered for the Spring Banquet, you will be contacted by Sue Ward to facilitate your refund.
Let’s all be safe.
Paul Maggitti, President
North Star Chapter of Minnesota
Saturday, March 21, 2020
1 PM - Business Meeting
1:45 PM - Program
1:45 PM - Program
Program: Craig Rhombs - “Corroborating a Family Story
The story Craig tells is about his paternal-line German-Russian great-grandparents and the family’s transfer from a Catholic to Lutheran church in the mid 1890s. In addition to telling a family story, Craig combines family history from a variety of sources to reconstruct and explain events in the lives of ancestors.
Craig’s family has roots in the Pfalz area (now Germany) and Alsace/Elsass area near Selz (now France). His great-grandparents left the Kutchesurgan Region of South Russia with four children in 1884 and landed at Ipswich, South Dakota, the end of the railroad line. The family homesteaded in Freedom Township of Faulk County, where the children attended school. Two more children were born, and Craig’s grandfather was baptized at Holy Cross Catholic Church at Ipswich. The mother, Barbara, died in March 1896 and was buried in a Lutheran Cemetery near Wecota, SD. Craig’s research pursued data to help explain his family’s transfer from a Catholic to Lutheran congregation, including weather data from the nearest NOAA station at Aberdeen, SD. His research helped explain the oral history of his family, and provided evidence for believability and selective reinforcement of weather playing a role in a family’s choice of church.
The story Craig tells is about his paternal-line German-Russian great-grandparents and the family’s transfer from a Catholic to Lutheran church in the mid 1890s. In addition to telling a family story, Craig combines family history from a variety of sources to reconstruct and explain events in the lives of ancestors.
Craig’s family has roots in the Pfalz area (now Germany) and Alsace/Elsass area near Selz (now France). His great-grandparents left the Kutchesurgan Region of South Russia with four children in 1884 and landed at Ipswich, South Dakota, the end of the railroad line. The family homesteaded in Freedom Township of Faulk County, where the children attended school. Two more children were born, and Craig’s grandfather was baptized at Holy Cross Catholic Church at Ipswich. The mother, Barbara, died in March 1896 and was buried in a Lutheran Cemetery near Wecota, SD. Craig’s research pursued data to help explain his family’s transfer from a Catholic to Lutheran congregation, including weather data from the nearest NOAA station at Aberdeen, SD. His research helped explain the oral history of his family, and provided evidence for believability and selective reinforcement of weather playing a role in a family’s choice of church.
Craig Rhombs, a retired “software guy,” has worked since 1973 to collect family history information about his ancestors. Craig’s ancestors include Colonial Connecticut settlers, and immigrants from Scotland, Baden, Norway, and Russia. He consolidated his collected data at a website: https://281connections.us
Saturday, April 25, 2020
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2020 Spring Banquet - “Windows to the Past”
Registration deadline is Friday, April 17, 2020 4:00 p.m. - Social time 5:00 p.m. - Catered buffet meal served 6:00 p.m. - Program with speaker - Torie Jones will present images from the Father William C. Sherman Photograph Collection on the large screen 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. More visit time Menu: Glazed ham, pot roast (beef), baby Yukon gold potatoes, glazed baby carrots, green beans with almonds, broccoli sunflower salad, Caesar salad, breads and butter, coffee (regular & decaf), punch, water, assorted desserts. Our banquet celebration at the end of “National Volunteer Week” also includes music from Steve Weninger and his accordion. |
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"Building on the Prairie – the Father William C. Sherman Photograph Collection"
The program will showcase the Father William C. Sherman Photograph Collection housed at the Germans from Russia History Center (GRHC). The collection encompasses over 13,000 photographs, negatives, and slides. Objects of interest include houses, barns, sheds and various agricultural structures located primarily in the Northern Plains and Ukraine. Along with the photographs, Father Sherman and his research crew gathered valuable information related to building techniques as well as family data including religion. This presentation will delve into the primary ethnic groups (German-Russian, Hungarian Germans, and Ukrainian) Sherman documented and the structures they built. |
Torie is a native of the Fessenden, ND area and began working as an undergraduate intern at the GRHC in July 2015. Torie graduated from North Dakota State University (NDSU) with a triple major in Horticulture, Public History, and History in December 2018 and began pursuing her Masters Degree in Public History in August 2019. She is currently the Graduate Assistant at the GRHC.
Saturday, September 19, 2020
1 PM - Business Meeting
2 PM – Program
Program: Bill Bosch
2 PM – Program
Program: Bill Bosch
Saturday, October 17, 2020
1 PM - Business Meeting
2 PM – Program
Program: Matt Klee
2 PM – Program
Program: Matt Klee
Saturday, November 21, 2020
November Genealogy Research Day
10 AM - Library open for Research
1 PM - Business Meeting
2 PM – Program
Program: TBD
10 AM - Library open for Research
1 PM - Business Meeting
2 PM – Program
Program: TBD
Saturday, December 5, 2020
12 PM - Pot luck meal
1 PM - Business Meeting
Program: Weihnachtsfest
Annual Christmas potluck meal including ethnic foods. Place settings and beverages provided by chapter. Program can include singing seasonal and holiday songs in English and German. Sometimes a special visitor shows up.
1 PM - Business Meeting
Program: Weihnachtsfest
Annual Christmas potluck meal including ethnic foods. Place settings and beverages provided by chapter. Program can include singing seasonal and holiday songs in English and German. Sometimes a special visitor shows up.
Meeting Location
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Location of Meetings:
(unless otherwise published) |
Berea Luthern Church
7538 Emerson Avenue South Richfield, MN 55423 |
Most chapter events are held in the fellowship hall on the lower (basement) level. This level can be accessed via stairs or elevator. The church has dedicated handicap parking spots near the ramp with doors to the elevator level (east side).
Past Events
Saturday, February 15, 2020
February Genealogy Research Day
10 AM - Library open for Research
1 PM - Business Meeting
1:45 PM – Program*
Program: Documentary: "LANDMARKS; Keeping History Alive"
The places we’ve lived are often remembered by their architecture and landmarks. Minnesota photographer Doug Ohman’s photos have appeared in seven books published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. “Landmarks” is his first documentary film, a collaboration with Pioneer Public Television in Appleton, MN, aired on the station in 2019. We’ll view the hour long documentary film featuring barns, churches and schools of southern and western Minnesota, with Minnesotans telling their stories. Chapter member Nancy Gertner is interviewed at her one-room school in Cottonwood County, which appears in the “Schools of Minnesota” of the Minnesota Byways series of books published by Minnesota Historical Society Press.
“Landmarks: Keeping History Alive,” was funded in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
A production of Pioneer Public Television,
C 2019.
*NOTE: Program is scheduled to begin earlier as a lengthy business meeting is probably not needed.
February Genealogy Research Day
10 AM - Library open for Research
1 PM - Business Meeting
1:45 PM – Program*
Program: Documentary: "LANDMARKS; Keeping History Alive"
The places we’ve lived are often remembered by their architecture and landmarks. Minnesota photographer Doug Ohman’s photos have appeared in seven books published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. “Landmarks” is his first documentary film, a collaboration with Pioneer Public Television in Appleton, MN, aired on the station in 2019. We’ll view the hour long documentary film featuring barns, churches and schools of southern and western Minnesota, with Minnesotans telling their stories. Chapter member Nancy Gertner is interviewed at her one-room school in Cottonwood County, which appears in the “Schools of Minnesota” of the Minnesota Byways series of books published by Minnesota Historical Society Press.
“Landmarks: Keeping History Alive,” was funded in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
A production of Pioneer Public Television,
C 2019.
*NOTE: Program is scheduled to begin earlier as a lengthy business meeting is probably not needed.
Saturday, January 18, 2020
NOTE: Canceled due to weather
1 PM - Business Meeting
1:45 PM - Program*
Program: DVD "Women behind the Plow"
C 2019 Prairie Public Broadcasting
Women Behind the Plow tells the compelling stories of determined and indefatigable women who settled the North Dakota prairie, and of the new generations, ages 15 – 92, who continue to work on the farm. These women embody the German-Russia expression “Arbeit macht das leben suess”….”Work makes life sweet.”
The 60-minute documentary is based in part on the book Women Behind the Plow which honors the contributions of women who worked in the fields and raised families in a time before electricity, the 10th in a series of award-winning documentaries produced by Prairie Public Television and the NDSU Libraries’ Germans From Russia Heritage Collection.
The women featured have roots in German-Russian country, an area in south central North Dakota comprising Emmons, Logan, and McIntosh Counties. It’s an area strong on agriculture but even stronger on heritage and stories. Chapter member Carol Just is featured.
*NOTE: Program is scheduled to begin earlier as a lengthy business meeting is probably not needed.
NOTE: Canceled due to weather
1 PM - Business Meeting
1:45 PM - Program*
Program: DVD "Women behind the Plow"
C 2019 Prairie Public Broadcasting
Women Behind the Plow tells the compelling stories of determined and indefatigable women who settled the North Dakota prairie, and of the new generations, ages 15 – 92, who continue to work on the farm. These women embody the German-Russia expression “Arbeit macht das leben suess”….”Work makes life sweet.”
The 60-minute documentary is based in part on the book Women Behind the Plow which honors the contributions of women who worked in the fields and raised families in a time before electricity, the 10th in a series of award-winning documentaries produced by Prairie Public Television and the NDSU Libraries’ Germans From Russia Heritage Collection.
The women featured have roots in German-Russian country, an area in south central North Dakota comprising Emmons, Logan, and McIntosh Counties. It’s an area strong on agriculture but even stronger on heritage and stories. Chapter member Carol Just is featured.
*NOTE: Program is scheduled to begin earlier as a lengthy business meeting is probably not needed.
Saturday, December 7, 2019
12 PM - Pot luck meal
1 PM - Program
Program: Weihnachtsfest
Annual Christmas potluck meal including ethnic foods. Place settings and beverages provided by chapter. Program can include singing seasonal and holiday songs in English and German. Sometimes a special visitor shows up.
12 PM - Pot luck meal
1 PM - Program
Program: Weihnachtsfest
Annual Christmas potluck meal including ethnic foods. Place settings and beverages provided by chapter. Program can include singing seasonal and holiday songs in English and German. Sometimes a special visitor shows up.
Saturday, November 16, 2019
10 AM - Library open for Research
1 PM - Business Meeting and elections
2 PM - Program*
Program: Jim Gessele “Lost...and found…in translation: A personal lesson learned while deciphering German words. It’s all about telling our stories”
Guests will come away knowing it’s not enough to simply fill in a genealogy chart. Jim will share excerpts from his latest translation of Fierce as a Lioness & Busy as a Bee: In Grandmother’s Footsteps (anticipated publication early 2020) a book written by Martha Betz, who works as a genealogist at the Bessarabian Heimat Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.
Longtime North Star Chapter member, Jim Gessele, currently has five translated works published and in circulation. This book, Fierce as a Lioness…., will be the sixth. Proposed publication date is early 2020. Seven more translated works await publication.
(*note: Bill Bosch, Spearfish, SD, was initially scheduled for this date. He is unable to make it at this time, but we will host him another time in the future)
10 AM - Library open for Research
1 PM - Business Meeting and elections
2 PM - Program*
Program: Jim Gessele “Lost...and found…in translation: A personal lesson learned while deciphering German words. It’s all about telling our stories”
Guests will come away knowing it’s not enough to simply fill in a genealogy chart. Jim will share excerpts from his latest translation of Fierce as a Lioness & Busy as a Bee: In Grandmother’s Footsteps (anticipated publication early 2020) a book written by Martha Betz, who works as a genealogist at the Bessarabian Heimat Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.
Longtime North Star Chapter member, Jim Gessele, currently has five translated works published and in circulation. This book, Fierce as a Lioness…., will be the sixth. Proposed publication date is early 2020. Seven more translated works await publication.
(*note: Bill Bosch, Spearfish, SD, was initially scheduled for this date. He is unable to make it at this time, but we will host him another time in the future)