Art Ibach's Commentary and Observations

Also:

Before the Napoleonic Wars, there was constant fighting between the French and Germans, as well as conscription to serve in the armies by both sides, along the Rhine river. The big impetus and incentive to move was promoted by Catherine II of Russia, better known as "Catherine the Great". Soon after becoming "Empress" in 1762, she quickly observed the lack of productive farming in her new Country, Russia. Being from what is now Germany, she knew how much more productive the "German" farms along the Rhine were. She also knew how these farmers, now free from serfdom, after several generations of dividing and re-dividing their original titled plots through family growth, had smaller and smaller farms.She had a hungry country to feed. Therefore, she publically advertised throughout this farming area to attract immigrant farmers and their families to Russia.

Her promise was for free land with minimal taxation, no military conscription for the farmer or his heirs for as long as they maintained a productive farm.I believe this promise held true through most of the 19th century. This lured many Germans to the Ukraine (Black Sea area) After that, especially once Marxism began to take its hold within Russia and especially from 1914 on; all promises went by the wayside.

I had not considered the possibility that "Ubach" may also have an "Ibach" connection. Have you done any research on what the "U" means. Today, it can be used as an abbrieviation for "Unter" as in U-boat or "Das Boot". Could this have a different "Yew" tree meaning? I remember something about a Father Ubach, a Catholic priest who followed Junipero Serra in San Diego and carried on his work. I never pursued this. I learned this in my early California History in the 6th grade( 1947). While I'm rambling on about the letter "U", I recall looking in the IGI files at an LDS family history center several years ago and noticed there were Ibachs, Jbachs, and Ybachs. At the time I thought the "J" and "Y" deviation from the "I" was due to the reading from the old script and mistakes in transcribing. (the letters can look most similiar in old German handwriting) Since then, I've learned that the Hebrew character (letter) for J, Y and I are all the same! Is that a strange coincidence or could that have some relevance?

Thank you Art for your history of the Russian immigration. You have done your homework!! Here is a bit of history from my knowledge of these German settlements in Russia:

Yes, Catherine the Great issued a Manifesto in 1762 calling for foreign colonists to settle in unoccupied areas in Russia. In 1763, there was a large migration and these immigrants were settled in the Volga area around Sarotov. Among these were many fortune-seekers, single and old people. These settlements were only partially successful due to raids of nomadic tribesmen, disease and many with no knowledge of farming or living on the open steppes.

In the 1770 to 90's, Russia had won battles against the Turks at Ismail on the Danube, then at the Black Sea, Crimea, Jassy [a Turkish Porte] and had then established the strategic towns of Cherson, Tiraspol, & Odessa. By this time, Catherine the Great had died and her grandson Alexander 1, [1801 - 1825] was the Czar. In Feb. of 1804 he re-issued a similiar Manifesto but this one contained selective provisions. This required that "only capable agriculturists and artisans" would be admitted; only families, [no singles] and those who had some proven financial means to make the journey and establish themselves. These German immigrants gathered at Ulm where they then boarded flat-bottomed barges for the trip on the Danube to Vienna. Here, they joined wagon transports for the long 3 month overland trip through Bohemia, Moravia, Galacia and then to the Russian border. They then needed to travel via wagon to the Black Sea area.

The overland route was taken rather than continue on the Danube River since hostile Turks still controlled the province of Bessarabia on the right bank of the lower Danube.  There were many immigrants to the Black Sea area in 1804 - 5. These then stopped with the Napoleonic battles in European Germany. In 1807, there was a temporary peace to this fighting and as a result, there were many other German immigrants to Russia in 1808 - 9. These ended when Napoleon again began his march across Europe until he was defeated in 1815.  

The beginnings in Russia were tough but they began to flourish after 1815. Life was good until the Russification laws beginning in 1871. This required draft into the Russian Army and the Russian language in their previously German schools. Plus, these large German families were having trouble finding additional land or work for their numerous sons. This prompted the immigration to the USA, Canada and South America. Only about 1/4 of the Germans in Russia left before 1914 when WW I stopped immigration. Then the Russian Revolution in 1917 spelled doom for those Germans still in Russia. The planned starvations, [10 to 15 million deaths] in the Ukraine alone -- the former bread basket of the world thanks to these German farmers, the "Terror" executions in the 1930's, the attempts to escape Russia during the German Army occupation of Russia during WW II and then the deportations to work camps, the "gulags" in Siberia where they served sentances of 10 to 25 years if death didn't provide them an escape first. There still exists a large number of German survivors in eastern Russia. After 1975, some have been able to immigrate and re-settle in Germany if they have family previously living there.

With the collapse of Communism in the 1990's, we are slowly making contacts and getting some actual copies of records from the Archives in Russia. There is a Website at:

http://www.kutschurgan.com/

This site has info about the 6 Catholic villages -- Baden, Elsass, Kandel, Mannheim, Selz and Strassburg [named after places in their old German homeland] in the Kutschurgan District about 35 to 60 miles northwest of Odessa, Russia. We had earlier published 1811 immigration lists and an 1816 revision [census] list for the people who settled in these villages. These indicate that two IBACH brothers immigrated to Russia. The first was Franz Joseph IBACH in 1805 to Josefstal village and then his brother Georg IBACH to Baden village in 1808. Franz Joseph IBACH died about 1812.
Before 1828, his two sons Nikolous and Bernhard IBACH have moved to Baden village where their Uncle Georg still lives. Georg had three wives and no surviving sons in 1816 so it seems doubtful that he had any others but have no records about this.

The following record at:

http://www.kutschurgan.com/docs/baden/badendebt.html

lists these three IBACH households:

The 1828 Baden Debt Lists Document

List of Names
Concerning the 55 households according to command number 1546 of the 18th of this month from the regional office, who have to pay crown debt, along with information about both men and women in the village of Baden.

Prepared 22 August, 1828

Household # 14. Bernhard Ibach 3,2 [# of males & females in the household
  --no further names listed]
Household # 21. Georg Ibach 5,3
Household # 36. Nicola Ibach 1,4
[possible descendants of Nicoli Ibach in Canada]
---------------------------------

Then a later record found is this at:

http://www.kutschurgan.com/docs/baden/badendoc4.html

The following document was obtained by Val Wangler from the Odessa Regional Archive. Translated with the help of George Dorscher and friends.

This is a military draft record. The births are believed to be in the year 1864 so the record likely comes from about 1884.

#9
Ibach, Bernhard
son of Johann

brothers; Xavier 36
Joseph 21
Paul 16.

[These are brothers of my great-grandmother Agatha IBACH Bertsch along with her father. The Xavier and Joseph and their families also immigrated to the USA while Bernhard & Paul presumably stayed in Russia and nothing further is known about them.]

More than you ever wanted to know about the history, spelling and descendants of the Ibachs in Russia !! Hope some of this is useful to you.

Mary Lynn Axtman
Fargo, ND; USA
TheAxt@aol.com

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