As my faithful readers may recall, in fall 2009, I completed my edit of grandmother Mary Dirks Janzen's book The Batum Story with added research/footnotes/photos. That is an unpublished compilation of memoirs of her, my grandfather Peter Janzen, and a handful of others who shared the same experience of being refugees from the Russian Revolution, traveling to Batum, Georgia to obtain papers, traveling to then-Constantinople/now Istanbul, Turkey, then finally taking ship to the U.S.
A belated but happy circumstance that resulted from my edit and from my posting on this site about it is that after that edition was completed, I heard from four other fellow descendents of those on the Batum trip who had further contributions. Two of those had all-new chapters, one of which had been solicited for my grandmother's 1974 edition, but had not been submitted in time.
After that, seeing as I felt strongly called to work on a third edition of the book, I went out on a limb to contact a couple other descendents and archivists for help (as a person who has tested 100% introverted on the Myers-Briggs inventory, pretty much anytime I contact someone I know to request something, never mind someone I don't know, it's a huge and anxiety-filled deal for me).
As with other such "shots in the dark" contacting strangers about my information quests that I made for the second edition, despite my fears, I met with enthusiasm and helpfulness, not "why in the world are you contacting me, you weirdo?"
All this is to say: Any other descendents of the refugee group who passed through Batum, please speak now, so that any contribution you may have can be incorporated into the new edition of the book. As exciting as the journey of working on the book has been, I feel two new editions in three years is sufficient.
A belated but happy circumstance that resulted from my edit and from my posting on this site about it is that after that edition was completed, I heard from four other fellow descendents of those on the Batum trip who had further contributions. Two of those had all-new chapters, one of which had been solicited for my grandmother's 1974 edition, but had not been submitted in time.
After that, seeing as I felt strongly called to work on a third edition of the book, I went out on a limb to contact a couple other descendents and archivists for help (as a person who has tested 100% introverted on the Myers-Briggs inventory, pretty much anytime I contact someone I know to request something, never mind someone I don't know, it's a huge and anxiety-filled deal for me).
As with other such "shots in the dark" contacting strangers about my information quests that I made for the second edition, despite my fears, I met with enthusiasm and helpfulness, not "why in the world are you contacting me, you weirdo?"
All this is to say: Any other descendents of the refugee group who passed through Batum, please speak now, so that any contribution you may have can be incorporated into the new edition of the book. As exciting as the journey of working on the book has been, I feel two new editions in three years is sufficient.
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