The Center for Ethnic Studies - Fort Hays State University

APPENDIX III
The Capuchin-Franciscan Friars Collection of Volga German Studies
This collection was assembled by Fr. Blaine Burkey, O.F.M.Cap. during his 32 year tenure
(1965-1997) in Ellis County. The collection also contains materials assembled earlier by other
Capuchins in Ellis County, including Fathers Francis S. Laing, John Mary Lenhart, Edwin
Dorzweiler, Raphael Engel and Alvin Werth.
Included in the collection are over seventy family genealogical studies, files on various
individual Volga Germans, and histories of the Kansas Volga German villages as well as a number
of historical monographs on the Germans in Russia. Ship records of a number of vessels from the
period 1875-1878, among them records of the "Ohio," the "Gellert," the "Frisia," the "Herder" and
the "Bahia" as well as a variety of census records and documents relating to immigration and
naturalization complement the materials on groups, families, and individuals.
The collection, housed in two filing cabinets, also contains fourteen large binders of Fr.
Blaine's personal manuscript notes on county immigrant families (filed by villages) and on
significant individuals of German descent, among them priests, brothers, sisters, physicians,
attorneys, elected officials and military personnel killed in action.
Among other items in the collection are folders documenting celebrations in the Volga
German communities, assorted baptismal, marriage and death records, copies of the writings of
Lawrence Weigel between 1973 and 1984 on Volga German traditions as well as an assortment of
newspaper clippings.
Use of the items in the Capuchin-Franciscan Friars Collection of Volga German Studies is
subject to conditions specified by the donor.
- 81 -