KATHERINE/KATHRYN MAGDELENA MAI was the daughter of FREDERIKA MARGARETHA SCHNEIDER and GEORG FRIEDRICH MAI. Her parents were descendants of the so-called Volga Germans, or Volga Deutsch, who had immigrated in the late 1800s from Prussia to fertile lands along the Volga River and its tributaries in Russia at the invitation of Catherine the Great.

Husband: GEORG ADAM DEINES (known as ADAM)
B. 7 Dec in Kratzke, Russia
D. 20 March 1927 in Henry, Scotts Bluff Co, NE

Marriage: 1878 - KATHRYN and ADAM DEINES marry in Russia, possibly in the village of Kratzke.

Immigration: 1898 - Probably departed Europe from Bremen, Germany. 9 of their 11 known children accompanied them, 2 others are unaccounted for. Their son WILLIAM was born in 1887 in Russia. Their daughter MINNIE was born in 1896 in Nebraska. Lack of access to Russian records makes it difficult to trace their parents and Russian-born children's birth records.

Europe to Mexico -
They paid an immigrant facilitator to get them to Boston, MA. Family lore claims their immigration was thwarted by an unscrupulous facilitator in Germany, probably at the port of Bremen. They may have arrived in Veracruz, an important immigrant port at the time, and ADAM may have found work in the logging industry that was active inland from that port.

Family lore claims they worked for 2 yrs. as hired help for a wealthy family until they earned enough to enter the U.S. and join their relatives in Russell County, Kansas. At that time they made their way to Nebraska to reunite with their relatives, reportedly by an overland route. At this writing no Mexico-U.S. border crossing records have been found, but family lore is consistent on this through three generations of DEINES relatives living in different states.

Naturalization: Listed as 1895 on the 1920 census.

Their known children:

1) Elizabeth Deines (1881-1958)
Husband: Jacob George {George J.} Maier

2) Johann Georg "George" Deines (1882-1957)
Wife: Anna Elizabeth Wagner

3) Jacob Henry Deines (1883-1919)
Wife: Maren Catheren/Kirstine Hansen

4) Peter Deines (1885-abt. 1956)
Wife: Kathryn Schwien

5) Katharena Margaretha "Margaret" Deines (1886-1976)
Husband: Johann Peter Boxberger

6) Riadel Deines (1886-?)

7) Henry Lewis Deines (1888-1955)
Wife: Olinda "Linda" Albrandt

8) Anna Deines (1891-1959) (twin?)
Husband: Harry Daton Pettengill

9) Adam Deines, Jr. (1891-?) (twin?)
Wife: Katherine "Katie" Hohnstein
Wife: Blanche Anna Young

10) Molly Katherine Deines (1891-1982)
Husband: Reuben Schneider

11) William Deines (1895-1984)
Wife: Mary

12) Minnie M. Deines (1896-1938) - Buried with her parents in Harvard Cemetery in Clay Co, NE.

1900 - The family settles in Russell Co, KS. This county was home to many Volga German immigrants by this time. They took up land in the Big Creek and Winterset townships according to the 1900 census. Children Jacob, Peter, Riadel, Henry, William and Mollie still live at home. Adam and Kathryn have been married 22 years at this time, and Adam works as a farm laborer.

By 1920 Kathryn and Adam had moved to Larimer Co, WY. By the time of Kathryn's death in 1924 she and Adam had moved to Hastings, Adams Co, Nebraska.

Sources: U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989. U.S. censuses for 1900 and 1920. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, Deines family lore as related by Ike Deines, son of Johann Georg Deines, and his children. Burial records.