Saturday, December 21, 2013

What do we know about Rohrbach?

Rohrbach

(Russian name: Novoswetlovka/Новосветловка, Ukrainian name: Novoswitlivka/Новосвітлівка)

Beresan District, Odessa/ Black Sea Region, New South Russia (Ukraine)

General Information

Founded:         1808

First Settlers:   1809

Location: Rohrbach is located 90 versts or approximately 61 miles northeast of the city of Odessa (a port city on the Black Sea and now part of the Ukraine) or 130 versts or 86 miles northwest of Kherson which served as the center of District Government for the Beresan German Russian Colonies. The Beresan District lies between the Bug River and the Tiligul River and is bordered on the south by the north shore of the Black Sea. Its closest neighbor is the village of Worms located six versts or 4 miles from Worms. See the map below. Worms is located 4 miles northwest of Rohrbach. Rohrbach is number 26 on the map below. Worms is number 25.

http://rohrbachrussia.ancestryhost.org/rgeneral.htm

Most of the German Colonists of this region came to Russia to seek economic and religious freedom and to escape the devastation that was raging in Western Europe as the result of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Most of the western German states bordering on the Rhine River were overrun by French occupation forces and German youth were being conscripted into the French Army. Taxation to support Napoleon's exploits was extreme. As political boundaries shifted as the result of military invasions these oppressed people were eager to leave western Europe. They were offered free land, freedom of religion and exemption from military service in New South Russia (the Ukraine) which had been acquired from the Ottoman Turkish Empire through a series of wars with Imperial Russia. There were numerous German villages all along the north shore of the Black Sea.



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