With four grandparents who immigrated from Russia, I knew I had a tremendous amount of research to do. My grandfather came from Huck. As I studied information on the village of Huck as well as my Hoffman surname, I became very familiar with other Huck surnames. In my search, the Huck surnames were continuously being repeated. However, this wasn't true of the Hoffman surname.

At the time I was working on this, I was an employee at AHSGR and spent many lunch hours doing research. I became frustrated because I couldn't located information on the Hoffman surname. One day while I was expressing my frustration to Jo Ann Kuhr, she said, "Maybe they weren't originally from Huck." As time passed, I became convinced that Jo Ann was right. Now I had a new problem. If the Hoffman's weren't from Huck, then where were they from?

In 1984, I was typing biographies which accompanied the immigrant plaques that were being mounted on the wall at the headquarters building. This was just before the Lincoln convention and dedication of our new AHSGR headquarters. One biography caught my interest because it had the Hoffman name. The family had the same first names and the same, family trade (shoemakers) as the information I had about my own Hoffman family. The family I was typing the biography about was from Balzer, not Huck.

About a week before the convention, my aunt (who lives in my grandparents' former home) received a letter addressed to my grandparents from Helen (Hoffman) Bach. The letter stated she had found a picture which had the date, name of my grandparents and their address in Lincoln, Nebraska written on the back of it. Immediately, I wrote Helen and sent her a photocopy of a picture I had which I thought was the same as the one the letter referred to.

It was the very same picture and Helen's Hoffman family was the family in the biography that I had typed. Helen and I decided we had to be of the same family because pictures aren't sent to just anybody with the same last name unless there is a family relationship, right?

Since that time, we learned that one Hoffman family from Balzer moved to the village of Huck before 1861. This information came from the Hoffman genealogy chart which Dr. Pleve, from Saratov, prepared. I believe these are my great great grandparents. I spoke with Art Flegel at the Minneapolis convention and with his help, along with Dr. Pleve's help, I hope to be able to prove this relationship to be true.

Another interesting note, ,when the 1775 census of Huck was published, Wilhelm Hoffman was among the original immigrants. He had two daughters and one son. He was left as a juvenile in the service of Lieutenant Moizhin in Huck by two sisters who had married into various colonies.

Wilhelm Hoffman is also listed in the 1798 Huck census. At that time, one daughter had married out of the village, the other daughter had married Philip Kindsfather. The son was not listed in the census. Therefore, I assume he died between 1775 and 1798. Otherwise, I think the Hoffman name would have been more prevalent in the village of Huck.

By the next newsletter, I hope to have more information on my Hoffman family.

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