VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:  
Office Help / Mailing - Two people are needed to help with mailings - open mail to OGSA,& help process and mail orders.  
Volunteers work out of our office at the MGS Library in South St. Paul. 
 - Amount of time needed varies and depends on your schedule. 
 
Library -  Volunteering at the MGS Library a couple hours a month.  We can arrange training for anyone interested. 

Hospitality - We need four to six people who can make attendee's feel welcomed and comfortable at our meetings and special events.   Volunteers serve as greeters, prepare tea and other food items, meeting preparation and clean up.  It's a great way to get acquainted with our members.  Sound like fun?

Website - We could use advisors with ideas on enhancing our website to help assist our members' research their ancestors and their communities.

Please contact us at info@ogsa.us for more information on any of these opportunities!

Discussion Lists...
The Ostfriesen Pages are the companion web site for the Ostfriesen email discussion list.
 www.rootsweb.com - check under mail lists - Germany - Ostfriesland. 

There's lots of great Ostfriesen resources and information there as well as everything that you need to know to join and participate in the the Ostfriesen discussion list. The list archives can be searched at: http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=OSTFRIESEN.

Join the list and discuss anything that concerns Ostfriesen genealogy, culture, folklore, history, and heritage. Go there! Join! Enjoy!  Read the FAQ pages before you post as they may answer some of your questions.  Need help?  Ask!

• Ostfriesen Resources...

  • Books:
    Check out the OGSA BOOK CORNER for a wide variety of other books on Ostfriesian history, culture and customs.  All translated by Gene Janssen into English.  You can order them from OGSA.  ORDER FORM
     
  • Other Ostfriesen Societies:
  • Northwestern Iowa (Library/meetings at George, Iowa)  They have most, if not all, Ostfriesen Ortssippenbücher.
    Ostfriesen Genealogical Society 
    Mail Address:  2185 Monroe, Ashton, IA 51232
     
  • Central/Eastern Iowa 
    Ostfriesian Heritage Society
    905 E Ave., Grundy Center IA 50638 / New library in Wellsburg, Iowa. with research center. They have most, if not all, Ostfriesen Ortssippenbücher and a lot of other resources.
     
  • Ostfriesian Heritage Society of East Central Illinois
    3154 CR 2000E, Rantoul IL 61866
    (217) 892-4776
     
  • Northwest Ohio
    PLATT DUUTSCH VEREEN VUN NW OHIO
    LOW GERMAN CLUB OF N. W. OHIO
    Attn: Bob Stockman, 10748 100th St., Alto MI 49302  
     
  • Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society, Pekin, Illinois, They have most, if not all, Ostfriesen Ortssippenbücher.
    719 N 11th Street, PO Box 312
    Pekin, IL   61555   Phone 309-477-3044
    Ostfriesen research center with OSBs.   www.tcghs.org / tcghs@tcghs.org
     
  • Most Ostfriesen OSBs are also in the St. Louis County Public Library, St. Louis, Missouri.
    They have a large genealogical collection.
     
  • For Ostfriesen heritage items such as kluntjes, German imported Porzellan, Ostfriesen tea and tea sets, tableware, etc.

            For others sources, please contact OGSA directly.

•  

Library Resources...

• The holdings of OGSA are located at the Minnesota Genealogical Society Library in South St. Paul, Minnesota.  The library hours are located on the home page.
   
  The library's holdings include Deutsches Geschlecterbücher for Ostfriesland and over over 50 volumes of the Germans to America Series, plus copies of all of the Ortssippenbücher or Ortsfamilienbücher for Ostfriesland. 

	Germans to America: Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports, by Ira A. Glazier, Filby P. William (Editor). 1850-1890. Over 50 copies are in the library.
	Ostfrieslands Ortssippenbücher - Community lineage books published by the Upstalsboom-Gesellschaft.  Many out of print books have recently been reprinted or are scheduled for reprint! Many are available from OGSA — click for more.
	Ostfriesische Nachrichten- German language newspapers on microfilm, 1896 - 1951. A great source of obituaries. An index is available. Click for a large, detailed view of the masthead (60K).
	1719 and 1757 Kopfschatzung - The 1719 Kopschatzung was a tax register compiled to help raise funds to repair dikes that were damaged in the 1717 Christmas flood and the 1757 register was a census covering all of Ostfriesland.
	Various books on Ostfriesland communities and and "colonies" in the US.
Plus...	The indispensable Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs. Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1912-1913. We also have a lot of maps in our library for your use.  Find your ancestral villages in Germany!