ABOUT ME
Introduction
Sandy Schilling Payne holds a bachelor’s degree from New Mexico State University. Her interest in genealogy began in 1994 and has since evolved into extensive research of her Germanic ancestry across modern-day Germany, France, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Canada, and the United States.
Sandy’s research interests include historical geography in genealogical contexts, the settlement of Germans in the Imperial Russian Empire, and the ongoing migrations and diaspora of Russian-Germans. She is the founder and author of the Germans from Russia Settlement Locations project, which geolocates ancestral German colonies from the Russian Empire and its successor states on modern maps.
An experienced speaker, Sandy has presented at international, national, and regional conferences. She is currently a member of the Black Sea German Research volunteer group and serves as webmaster for the Glückstal Colonies Research Association. She is also affiliated with the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, the Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe, and the Germans from Russia Heritage Society, where she served six years on the editorial review board.