Presentations

Publication and Presentation Timeline 

2023
Deportation Locations: Mapping Needles in Haystacks. Presentation to the Southern California Chapter of Germans from Russia. September 16, 2023. Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Germans from Russia Settlement Locations Project. Presentation at the Foundation of East European Family History Studies 2023 Convention. August 1–4, 2023 (pre-recorded presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Time Travel Using Historical Maps. Presentation at the Foundation of East European Family History Studies 2023 Convention. August 1–4, 2023 (pre-recorded presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Time Travel Using Historical Maps: The Black Sea Region. Presentation at the Germans from Russia Heritage Society 2023 Convention. July 22, 2023 (virtual presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Workshop: Mapping Your Family History on Google MyMaps. Workshop given to the Seattle Genealogy Society German SIG. May 20, 2023 (virtual workshop). Sandy Schilling Payne, facilitator.

Time Travel Using Historical Maps. Presentation to the Arizona Sun Chapter of AHSGR in Chandler, AZ. March 26, 2023. Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Places of Memory: Mapping Your Family History on Google MyMaps. Presentation to the Seattle Genealogy Society German SIG. January 21, 2023 (virtual presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

2022
Time Travel Using Historical Maps. Presentation to the North Texas Germans from Russia (dual AHSGR/GRHS chapter). September 25, 2022 (virtual presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Time Travel Using Historical Maps. Presentation at the GR Wall Breaker Conference 2022, hosted by the Edmonton AHSGR chapter. September 10, 2022 (virtual presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Time Travel Using Historical Maps. Presentation at the 52nd Annual American Historical Society for Germans from Russia International Convention. July 29, 2022 (virtual presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

2020
Germans from Russia in America: An Ever Expanding "German-Russian Country", Sandy Schilling Payne. Germans from Russia Heritage Society Heritage ReviewVol. 50, No. 3, (October 2020): pp. 28-36

Google MyMaps of Ancestral German Colonies in Russia: 1873-1939. Presentation at the Germans from Russia Genealogy conference. September 12, 2020 (virtual presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Germans from Russia Settlement Locations in the United States: 1873-2020. Presentation at the Germans from Russia Genealogy conference. September 11, 2020 (virtual presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Germans from Russia Settlement Locations: Mapping America. Sandy Schilling Payne. Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. Spring 2020. Volume 43, No. 1: pp. 16-24.

2019
Mapping the Past in the Present: Germans from Russia Settlement Locations. Presentation to the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia Edmonton Chapter. October 9, 2019, Edmonton, Canada (remote presentation). Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Mapping America: Germans from Russia Settlement Locations.  Presentation at the 50th International Convention of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.  July 23-27, 2019, Lincoln, Nebraska.  Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

2017
The Germans from Russia Settlement Locations Project, Sandy Schilling Payne.  Max Kade Institute Friends of Max Kade Newsletter, Volume 26, No. 3, Fall 2017: p. 1, 4-6.

Locating your Ancestral Villages on Google Maps: Germans from Russia Settlement Location Project.  Presentation at the 48th International Convention of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.  August 30-31, 2017, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Sandy Schilling Payne, presenter. 

Karte der deutschen Ansiedlungen im Osten auf Google MapsBrigitte Bornemann. Mitteilungsblatt des Bessarabischen Vereins e.V.  72. Jahr gang and Heft 08/August 2017.  The English translation of the article is available from the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection under the title Charting German Settlements in the East via Google Maps.

Project Update: Germans from Russia Settlement Locations, 
Sandy Schilling Payne. Germans from Russia Heritage Society Heritage ReviewVol. 47, No. 1, (March 2017): pp, 4-5.

Locating your Ancestral Villages on Google Maps: Germans from Russia Settlement Location Project.  Presentation at the Alberta Genealogical Society - Medicine Hat & District Branch. March 1, 2017, Medicine Hat, Alberta.  Dennis Bender and Melvin Bender, presenters.
2016
From Russia with LoveMo Cranker.  Medicine Hat NewsNovember 14, 2016, p. A3.
Locating your Ancestral Villages on Google Maps: Germans from Russia Settlement Location Project.  Presentation at the Germans from Russia Heritage Society 46th Annual International Convention.  September 8, 2016, Rapid City, South Dakota.  Dennis Bender and Melvin Bender, presenters. 

John Althouse.  Alberta Genealogical Society of Edmonton BranchGerman Special Interest Group, My German Roots Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 6: pp. 21-24.

Black Sea Region German Settlement Location and Current Name: Bessarabian, Beresan, and Crimean Villages, Dennis Bender. Germans from Russia Heritage Society Heritage ReviewVol. 46, No. 1, (March 2016): pp, 21-27
Black Sea Region German Settlement Location and Current Name, Dennis Bender.  Germans from Russia Oregon and Washington Chapter (G.R.O.W.) Newsletter, Vol. 15, Issue 2 (Jan.-Feb.-Mar. 2016): pp. 8, 11-12. 

Presentation Descriptions 

  • Time Travel Using Historical Maps
    • In this presentation, you will learn how to use information from the Germans from Russia Settlement Locations map to travel back in time and find your ancestral colonies on historical georeferenced maps. You will learn where to find detailed maps online, how to overcome language issues with technology, how to capture and enhance images, and how to properly cite the maps that you find.
  • Mapping the Past in the Present
    • This presentation reviews the technology behind the Germans from Russia Settlement Locations project. From aerial and satellite imagery, to Global Positioning Systems, to the internet and graphical WWW browsers, to Google and cloud-based web hosting, to recent georeferenced maps repositories that use historical map overlays, this session will highlight all that had to be invented in order for the maps project to exist.
  • Mapping America
    • This presentation outlined the research and purpose behind mapping the locations of the descendants of Germans from Russia who immigrated to the United States after their colonist privileges were revoked in the early 1870s during a nationalist movement in Russia under Emperor Alexander II.  
  • Locating Your Ancestral Villages on Google Maps
    • This presentation documented the history, purpose, and goals of the Germans from Russia Settlement Locations project from its inception. It includes the research methods and sources used to locate German colonies in Russia, how they are mapped using Google MyMaps, a summary of the project's progress and a tour of the online map.