Many people living in the Dakotas, Kansas and Nebraska share a German-Russian heritage. The Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta and the states Washington, Oregon, California and others also have a smattering of German-Russians. They are so called because their ancestors moved to Russia from German territories in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and then moved to the Americas in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Those original German-Russians created an agricultural and industrial empire, and then many of them left it all behind to begin anew somewhere in the Americas. Their story is a colorful and fascinating tale filled with triumph and tragedy.