My friend, Karen Lee Day, started doing genealogy back in the 1970's. Her mother's maiden name was Grauberger. This was where she decided to begin searching her line. Since her grandparents, Carl Grauberger and Lydia Schuber Grauberger, had already passed away, her mother, Esther Grauberger Lee, told her to write her Uncle John Grauberger.

Karen's mother felt perhaps he would have some information that would be of help. After getting in contact with her uncle, she received a list of her grandfather's family. She was only able to gather the names of his mother, father, brother and sister.

Carl Grauberger and his mother, Marie Barbara Schantz Grauberger, along with his brother and sister came to the USA in 1903 from Dietel, Russia. Visit Cyndi's List of Genealogy on the Internet/Germans from Russia Site, to see Dietel's location.

Carl's father John Grauberger died in Russia. Because Russia was behind the Iron Curtain at that time, she had had little hope of ever getting more information on this line.

After Karen moved to Seattle, she learned about the Germans from Russia Genealogy Group and joined it. She also advertised in their magazine, but did not get much response. About a year ago, she got on-line with Internet access and an e-mail account. It was there that she found Cyndi's List of Genealogy on the Internet/Germans From Russia Site. Karen listed her Grauberger line on the Internet and had a couple of people respond to her listing, one of whom was Kris Ball. Howerver, they did not connect at that time.

A few months later, someone e-mailed her and asked if she knew who might have hired a genealogist to do research in the Village of Dietel, Russia, on the Grauberger line. She replied back, that she did not know. However, she did ask if they ever found out to let her know, as she was interested in their findings.

A few days later, her contact wrote back to report that he had learned the identity of the person who hired the genealogist, and also that a copy of the genealogical chart was available.

The mystery person turned out to be Kris Ball, with whom she had corresponded earlier. Karen immediately wrote to Kris to ask for a copy of the chart, which was put in the mail to her. Karen said waiting for the chart to arrive felt like the longest few days she had ever spent.

Kris had told her the chart was pretty impressive, but Karen had no idea HOW impressive it would be. This chart had more than 300 names on it; and they were all Grauberger descendants of Johann Grauberger, born 1713 in Germany.

Karen says her excitement was beyond explanation when she saw that Johannes Grauberger had married Maria Barbara Schanz (or tz) from Lisanderdorf Colony. She believed these were her great-grandparents. She did question whether Lisanderdorf was the correct village name, as her grandmother was supposed to have come from Messer.

In doing some checking, she learned that Messer is the German name for the village, and Lisanderdorf is the Russian name. How exciting it was for her to learn and know that these really were her great-grand parents!

The names on this chart took her back four more generations to Johann Grauberger, who is her 5th Great Grandfather. Since finding this information, she has discovered that Johann Grauberger was one of the 70 original settlers of Dietel.

Dietel was first established on July 25, 1767. Visit Cyndi's List of Genealogy on the Internet/Germans from Russia Site, for more information on the history of Dietel. Cyndi's List also provides information about the citizens of Dietel who were deported to Siberia.

She spoke very lovingly about this photo, and I am sure she feels very fortunate to have this photo as a remembrance of ancestors from Dietel, Russia.

Master Email Listing for Germans From Russia, email to Sherrie Stahl at stahl@teleport.com.