Volunteer Opportunities

The Glückstal Colonies Research Association has always thrived on its dedicated volunteers. Over the years, there have been fewer and fewer. We encourage you to get involved with the GCRA by volunteering your time and expertise and helping the organization meet its mission. The following opportunities are available:


GCRA Newsletter

If you are interested in any of these opportunities, contact Duane Stabler at destabler@outlook.com

Editor

This person is responsible for selecting, soliciting, and editing the content of the GCRA Newsletter, including articles, photos, translations, etc. The Newsletter is produced twice a year and is on average 48 pages per issue. This person would be working closely with the Layout Manager. We ask for a one year commitment, hoping that you'll like it and want to stay on longer.

Layout Manager

This person is responsible for doing laying out the two issues of the GCRA Newsletter a year. The current Newsletter template is in Microsoft Publisher, but if you know other desktop publishing software, have the skills, and are willing to create a template in the desktop publisher of your choice, we would be open it. Experience with photo editing a plus. The Layout Manager would work closely with the Editor. We ask for a one year commitment, hoping that you'll like it and want to stay on longer.

Article Contributors

We need members who will commit to contributing at least one article for the Newsletter per year between 500 and 3000+ words. Some possible writing topics:

  • Write about a photo, a document, or a recipe related to you Glückstal Colonies ancestors.

  • Write about a memory you have of your parents', grandparents', great-grandparents' basement, cellar, attic, chicken coop, etc.

  • Write about a recent discovery in your research.

  • Write about a family story or myth that you have confirmed or debunked.

  • Write about a holiday tradition related to your ancestors that you keep alive.

  • Write about how you teach your children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren about their heritage.

  • Write about something you read in a past Newsletter or other GCRA publication and how it helped your research.



GCRA Website

No website or html experience necessary! The work is short-term information gathering and will help add useful content to the website. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please contact Sandy Schilling Payne at gcra.webmaster@gmail.com

The Colonies Project

The goal is to have a webpage for every mother, daughter and chutor.

Materials needed (GCRA does not provide these to you):

  1. A copy of or access to the book The Glückstalers in New Russia and North America: A Bicentennial Collection of History, Genealogy and Folklore. ($68 from GRHC)

  2. A copy of the free ebook German-Russian Handbook: a reference book for Russian German and German Russian history and culture with place listings of former German settlement areas. (free from GRHC)

  3. Optional: Nice to have but not mandatory for this work is the GCRA 2021 Data Drive for accessing the Points-of-Origin file to help determine when our ancestors lived in locations that do not have founding years. ($55 from GCRA)

Skills needed:

  1. Typing, OCR scanning, or other technology of your choice to copy the necessary text from the book into a word processor file (any application is fine, Word, Google Docs, etc..). No formatting needed. Just straight text.

  2. Ability to search a list of internet sources for information about the colony, locate photos, etc. and report any useful findings along with the source.

Commitment:

  1. Commit to collecting information for 5 colonies. Those available are listed below:


Hoffnungstal (assigned) Berlin (assigned)

Blumental Eigenfeld

Fontal Friedenstal

Grekowo Grüntal

Hildesheim Hoffnungsfeld

Horski Klein Bergdorf

Klein Glückstal Klein Neudorf

Koscharka Malichonowo

Marienberg Marienheim

Nesselrode Neu Beresina

Neu Blumenfeld Neu Glückstal

Neu Kassel Neu Sawatski

Otrada Post

Schäfer Schirajewo

Schönfeld Seebach

Sherebkowe Sofiental

Topik (assigned) Wischina


Chutor Alexandrowka (assigned) Chutor Balitski (assigned)

Chutor Faas Chutor Kronstal

Chutor Mardarowka Chutor Neuhof

Chutor Polesnaja Chutor Wakarski

Chutor Wodina Hirschberg

Irenenfeld Michelstal

Wilhelmsaue Wilhelmsfeld


The Gallery Project (details coming soon)

The goal is to have a page of images for each of the following topics:

    1. GCRA Monument erected in Glückstal

    2. Weddings

    3. Funerals and Obituaries

    4. Confirmations

    5. Family

    6. Military

    7. School

    8. Farming

    9. Foodways

    10. Folk Medicine

    11. Clothing and Handwork

    12. Newspaper articles

    13. Others?

Page last updated 11 March 2022