GEORG ADAM DEINES was the son of KATHERINA MARGARETHA MULLER and GEORG JAKOB DEINES of the village of Saratov, Volga region of Russia.

His 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.

Marriage: In 1878 KATHERINE MAI married GEORG ADAM DEINES in Russia, probably in his, hers, or their home village which may have been Saratov. Their ancestors were allowed to keep their German religions, language, and cultural practices.

Immigration: 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.

Naturalization: Listed as 1895 on the 1920 census. This couple and some of their older children were sent to Mexico instead of the U.S. Family lore claims their immigration was thwarted by an unscrupulous facilitator in Germany, probably at the port of Bremen. They may have arrived in the port of Veracruz and Adam may have found work in the logging industry that was active inland from that port.

Family lore claims they worked as hired help for a wealthy family for a year or two until they earned enough to enter the U.S. and join their relatives in Russell County, Kansas.

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.

Our appreciation to Catherine Renschler for first creating this page and graciously transferring it.


Sources: 1900, 1920, and 1930 U.S. censuses. U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 for Hastings, Nebraska. Deines family lore as related by Ike Deines, son of Johann Georg Deines, and his children.∼Georg Adam DEINES, known as Adam, was the son of Katherina Margarita Muller (1827-1911) and Georg Jakob DEINES, Jr. (1827-1882). His parents were among the group now known as the Volga Germans, Black Sea Germans, Volga Deutsche, and other names indicating their ancestral ties through Russia to Prussia.

Family lore and scholarly research agree that Adam was born in the village of Kratzke in Russia. There were two uses of this name, one for the original village of Kratzke and one for its "sister" village of Ahrenfeld, which in later times also bore the name of Kratzke. Both villages were later given Russian names. Because of this research into Adam's pre-immigrant life is confusing and made even more difficult due to lack of good records. The town of Pochinnaya Sopka in the administrative division, or "Oblast", of Novgorod, Russia seems to be the former village of the original Kratzke.

1878 - Adam DEINES marries Kathryn/Katharina Magdalena "Katy" MAI in Russia.

1898 -Immigration: Left Europe with their children, probably from Bremen, Germany. 9 of their 11 known children accompanied them, 2 others are unaccounted for. Arr. 5 Jan 1900 Baltimore, MD aboard the SS Köln.

They paid an immigrant facilitator to get them to Boston, MA. Instead they found themselves delivered to Mexico. In Mexico City they hired out as domestic servants to a wealthy family for two years, saving their earnings until they could cross the border into the U.S. 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 throughout several states and generations of Deines descendants.

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.

Their known children:

1) Elizabeth Deines (no data)
2) Margaret Deines (no data)
3) Johann Georg "George" Deines (1882-1957)
4) Jacob Deines (1882-?)
5) Peter Deines (1885-?)
6) Riadel Deines (daughter) - (1886-?)
7) Henry Deines (1888-1955)
8) Adam Deines, Jr. (1891-?)
9) Molly Deines (1891-?)
10) William Deines (1895-?)
11) Minnie M. Deines (1896-1938) Buried with her parents in Harvard Cemetery in Clay Co, NE.

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. Members of this family were known to have followed the sugar beet harvests in all three of the states where they had homes, and some of the children moved out of Kansas because they saw areas they liked better, or where land was more available, in the course of hiring out as migrant farm labor.



Sources: Federal census, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, family lore, burial records. Grateful acknowledgement for input from Dr. Brent Mai, Dean of Libraries, Director, Center for Volga German Studies at Concordia University, Portland, Oregon.

Note: Burial on 26 April 1931 in Morrill, Scotts Bluff Co, NE. Cemetery unknown at this time.