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a letter from SIBERIA

Newsletter of the Catholic
Apostolic Administration of Asian Russia -
i.e. Siberia and the Russian Far East

© copyright 1996 by FEEFHS; all rights reserved
These letters are all now on-line
Please see the letter from SIBERIA index page for a list of available issues, and of other e-mail letters and special bulletins received from Siberia.

A map to accompany a letter from SIBERIA, prepared by Father Blaine Burkey, O.F.M.Cap., is also available on-line.

First Posted: 9 February 1996 -- Latest Update: 28 May 2000

First Issue: 28 February 1993

Latest Press run: 900 subscribers

Postal Address:
a letter from SIBERIA
c/o Father Blaine Burkey, O.F.M.Cap.
St. Crispin Friary
3731 Westminster Place
St. Louis, Missouri 63108-
Telephone: 1-314-531-4506
FAX: same as telephone number, but call first so I can turn it on.
eMail address:

Editor & FEEFHS Representative:
Father Blaine Burkey of the http://www.midamcaps.org.html Capuchin-Franciscan Order (O.F.M.Cap)

Background: This newsletter reports on the activities and conditions in Siberia and the Russian Far East of the Roman Catholic Church, under the leadership of Bishop Joseph Werth, S.J., which serves several hundred thousand Germans, Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and other ethnic groups, most of whom were displaced from other parts of the C.I.S. during the Stalinist era.

This bishopric covers all of Asian Russia which equals about 10.3% of the land surface area of the world. Father Burkey is in periodic contact with Bishop Werth, with the Capuchin Mission Office in Denver Colorado and with the various Catholic missionaries in Asian Russia.

One genealogy example: Four Catholic Sisters of St. Agnes of German-Russian extraction have been on mission in Chelyabinsk since 1994. This city is in the western part of the Bishopric, on the eastern slopes of the Ural mountains. Genealogy is of interest to this group of missionaries. They have sent back several life stories. These sisters have identified many Chelyabinsk-area residents with the same surnames and places of origin as their own ancestors. They have not yet established a common ancestry.

Publication: There are frequent issues of a letter from SIBERIA>/i>, but they appear on a somewhat irregular schedule - every two months or so on average. It currently appears on two sides of a single sheet of legal sized (8 1/2" x 14") paper. Eighteen issues were published in the first thirty six months (February 1993 - February 1996). The latest issue was publihed in December 1999.

Related publication: The Apostolic Administration itself has been publishing a monthly newspaper, Sibirskaya Katolisheskaya Gazeta, at Novosibirsk since January of 1995. Its content is similar, but distinct from a letter from SIBERIA. FEEFHS is now investigating ways to publish this and other Cyrillic texts on the World-Wide Web at this web site.

Subscription Price: Father Burkey does not charge a subscription fee for this newsletter; however, he gratefully accepts any donation that is offered. He also encourages donations to the Bishop Werth Fund at the Capuchin Mission Office in Denver to help support the needs of the Siberian Bishopric including both the local Catholic people and missionaries working among them.

Asian Russian Genealogy Queries?: Father Burkey is also a genealogist, but his time (and the space available) does not permit the inclusion of genealogy queries as part of this newsletter.

FEEFHS is considering the possibility of accepting the e-mail addresses of persons wishing to send German-Russian genealogy queries to Asian Russia. FEEFHS Past Treasurer Miriam Hall-Hansen has volunteered her efforts to coordinate such an effort some time in the future. Meanwhile Father Burkey is looking into various ways of disseminating such queries.

This page is posted at http://feefhs.org/lfs/frg-lfs.html


["Conversations with the Elders" HOMEPAGE]
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