(this letter contained many words and expressions that are colloquial expressions so the translation is .sometimes questionable)

1922 year, the 21st of March

March makes real pain (in German, this rhymes)

The grace of the Lord with us and you all of us, Amen.

Immediately at the beginning of the letter I make known to you that we have received your letter, the one you wrote the 5th of February. We received it with great joy. It was as though an angel from heaven had come to us and brought us a message. It was that kind of joy for us.

To begin with, I want to tell you how matters are going for this time. Dear Brother-in-law Oswald and Sister Kate with your children. It would be great joy to us if you were all in good health. We are still.well and so are our children, that are alive. George and Kate namely your "Geht"(?) they have died in the year 1918 in November. The rest of us are, thanks to God, well. But dear Brother-in-law and Sister Kate we are now living on what we used to feed the sow that we eat during this time the bran-grit-coarse flour and ???? cakes, and the potato peeling they were for the sows but for now that is the best people have. If only we had enough. We only cook once a day. The thought of making bread and cake is not even possible. The last time we saw bread was in 'fall'(??), so you can imagine

what kind of a life it is. It is poor. It can't be poorer. That is the way it is with clothing too - weak. One life is set upon/against another‑so you can imagine what a life it is.

The Brother-in-law Jacob Eckert and Sister Krieht are still well with their children and brother-in-law

Peter and sister Erlisbeth with their children In closing greetings from us brother-in-law and brother

George and Sister-in-law and children. A cordial greeting and kiss of love. Amen

Dear Brother-in-law and Sister Kate, do write us the names of your children in order of birth. You also asked us what kind of a wife Jacob has. He has the daughter of Johannes Brotzman from the young Andrese (??) Johannes his daughter. They have two children. It is two girls. The oldest is two years and five months and the second one is eight days old.

Dear Brother-in-law Oswald and Sister Kate. I make known to you how many animals we have still -one horse, two cows, four oxen, four sheep, one pig, two calves - that is all we have. Dear Bro‑in‑law and Sister, if no help comes we will all have to starve.

On giving(??) there is no other advice. If you want to send something you will have to send it directly to us. If you send it for a general purpose then it is lost. We will get none of it. It goes to those who are in the kitchen(??). They feed themselves first, then the children. The only remaining thing is the broth(??). But if you send directly to us, then we will receive it and have something to eat.

Written in the year 1925, the second Easter Day (Easter Monday). In the name of God the Father and his Son and the Holy Spirit, I begin our letter, from us, your brother P. Phillip and Sister-in-law Annekrist, so also your brother Johannes and Sister-in-law Schalote, together with our four children, also the little Philipp with his wife and three children. We are thankful to God that we are well at this time, the same good health that we also with you from the bottom of our heart. Be you greeted Brother Oswald and Sister-in-law Katarina, together with your six children. It would be nice if this meager writing would find you in good health, even as we are. We want to make known that we have received your letter with great joy and see from it that you are in good health.

Now we make known to you that we have seed wheat. We have 30 pud (Russian weight = I pud = 36(or mavbe nearly 40) pounds). We also have three pud 14 pounds of barley. We have received this from the government. How much stock do we have - we have six young oxen and one cow. Two steers and one horse, we traded in autumn for feed. If we had not traded the two horses(?) we would have had no feed, so we have no oxen and now cows now. The feed was very weak here.

You have asked about our neighbor people. Conrad had four oxen and two cows in fall, and one horse was left over and three oxen. The horse, two cows and one ox died. He had no feed for them.

It is so weak here in the wintertime. Why; because in the month of February 25 and 26 we had the biggest water(?, rain?) so no one has been able to work the land. In April we want to work the acres, but we have no horse. We have to farm with oxen.

Farewell till we see you again. Hope for an answer soon (immediately?).

. Written the 17th of March 1930

The grace of the Lord be with us and you all, Amen. At first take a nice cordial greeting and kiss of love from us your Brother-in-law Eckert and Sister Kriedt together with our three children, namely George 28 years old with two children Emilie seven years and Phillipp two years old and two unmarried boys, namely Philip 20 years and Jacob 17. Our family consists of eight souls.

We have actually received your letter and see from it you are really well, which is the best in life -health. But Brother-in-law and Sister-in-law (should this be sister?) Katge (Kate), I am dissatisfied because you have written so little. Nothing of Brother-in-law Zitterkopf and Sister Kreick (these are the grandparents of Dennis Zitterkopf) , namely my sister Annam, but are they all died off? I have not received a letter from them in a long time. I would like to know the reason. You surely can get paper to write on. Here with us we no longer have paper to write on, but I still don't forget you to write you. You Sister-in-law (sister?) Katge (Kate) you were always too curious while you were unmarried and now you write us so little. You write you are busy with laundry and mending. We would be glad to mend, and can't buy anything around here, there is nothing available, no leather, no sugar What one needs in a family just can't get it.

Dearly beloved Brother-in-law and Sister Katge (Kate), everything is poor here. The rich people have all been put out of their houses. Also the people that to us -- ??? -- also put out of their homes, cousin(??) Johannes and many more up to 60 families. Brother-in-law Oswald, the brothers are still in their house and are healthy.

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