Karen L Schutte 
Seed of the Volga 
2nd in a Trilogy of an American Family Immigration Saga

The second book of a trilogy, SEED OF THE VOLGA encompasses the lives of the author’s great-grandparents. Beginning in Germany, 1861 the Steiner family is traced from an unwed and pregnant princess in the Black Forest, to the banks of Russia’s Volga River. The reader is gripped by the dire dilemma of the Princess Theraisa Von Steiner as she mourns the death of her intended husband and is frantic to hide her pregnancy. Based on the true story of the author’s family, SEED OF THE VOLGA captures the chilling tale of her ancestor’s immigration out of war-torn Germany. War had taken everything from them until Russian Empress Catherine the Great offers them a new beginning. By 1890, there were over 1, 500, 000 Germans settled along the Volga River and its flood plain. Life was good until the ugly and threatening head of Russian politics threatened their very lives. David and Sofie Steiner make the agonizing decision to immigrate before the borders close, this time to America. They left their family and the only home they had ever known in exchange for freedom and life. They soon discover the streets are not paved with gold, but with horse manure and hard work, but they are alive and they are free.