Gottlieb Schulz
? – ?
Wolhynien
Ancestral Tree
Kroeker lineage genealogy tree spanning five generations from Volhynia and northern Kazakhstan to Germany.
Visual overview — five generations
1st generation — earliest known ancestors
Gottlieb Kröker
? – ?
Wolhynien
2nd generation — great-grandparents
Ivan (Johann) Ivanovich Kröker
dates not confirmed (from Lydia's autobiography: 1864 / ~1924)
Wolhynien
Emma nee Schulz
1877 (Soviet file 1949) / 11 Nov 1884 (another source)
Viktorovka, Baryshivka District, Kiev Oblast
1st marriage — Johann (Ivan) Kröker (1864–1924), father of the daughters Lydia (1917), Zinaida (1920) and Emma (1924). After Kröker’s death in 1924 she married again (Frelich) — recorded under that name in Soviet records. Deported in 1941 from the village of Peski to a special settlement in North Kazakhstan; released from registration on 19 January 1956.
Heinrich Gottlibovich Schulz
dates unknown
Own brother of Emma Gottlibovna. In special settlement in Tomsk.
Friedrich Gottlibovich Schulz
dates unknown
Own brother of Emma Gottlibovna. In special settlement in Tomsk region.
3rd generation — grandmother and siblings
Lydia Dreger née Kröker
17.04.1917 – ?
Schiljesna / Wolhynien
Resettled to the Warthegau in 1943–1944 (naturalised 1944). After 1945, forcibly repatriated to the USSR together with her son Leo; from 1945 in the village of Sennoye, where she was reunited with her mother and sisters.
Emma Iwanovna Kroeker
05.05.1924 – 02.05.1987
village of Uvarovka / Neu-Aleksandrovka, Pulin district, Kyiv region
Died in the village of Dubovskoye, Dubovsky district of Rostov region. Eugen's grandmother. Posthumously rehabilitated (1993). Personal file No. 1229 (HDA MVS Ukrayiny, F.161 V.1 file 877).
Zinaida Ivanovna Simentsova (née Kröker)
1920 — d. in the village of Dubovskoye (date unknown)
Elder sister of Emma Ivanovna. After release from special settlement she lived with Emma in the village of Dubovskoye, Rostov region, where she also died.
Edmund Dreger
22.07.1914 – ?
Chabrowka
Leo Dreger
08.06.1937 – ?
Knarow / Knowrow
Son of Lydia. He went through the westward resettlement and the forced repatriation with his mother; from 1945 he lived with the relatives in Sennoye.
4th generation — parents
Vladimir Nikolaevich Usachev
08.04.1950, Sennoye — 06.08.2023, Shakhty
village of Sennoye, Sovetsky district, North Kazakhstan
Son of Emma Ivanovna. At birth registered as Kröker Vladimir (father — "Vasiliy"). From 1952 — Usachev (after stepfather Nikolai Maksimovich). Lived in Sennoye (1950–1956) → Dubovskoye (1956–~1975) → Shakhty (~1975–2023). Kupiansk Tractor Vocational School. Until 1975 — driver of an Ikarus bus on the Rostov–Kharkov route, from ~1975 — driver of a GAZ-66 in a geological exploration expedition. Liquidator of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (1986) — 2nd group disability, medal. The birth registration («Kreker Vladimir Vasilyevich») is officially confirmed by the North Kazakhstan State Archive certificate No. 03.20.5-01-33/FL-220 of 15 July 2026 (birth record No. 13). The certificate includes a copy of the stepfather's handwritten application of 31.01.1956 — f. 140, op. 1, d. 97, ll. 13–14.
Lyubov Usachev (née Kryshka)
dates not published
Wife of Vladimir Nikolaevich. Worked at the Shakhty Cotton Mill (KhBK). Living.
Living person: data shortened
Nikolai Maksimovich Usachev
1923 — ?
Stepfather of Vladimir Nikolaevich. Marriage to Emma Ivanovna 26.07.1952 in the village of Sennoye. After the marriage, the father entry in Vladimir's birth certificate was rewritten to "Usachev Nikolai Maksimovich".
Wassili (biological father)
recorded per mother's statement: birth act No. 13 of 14.04.1950
Sennoye, North Kazakhstan
In the original birth certificate No. 13 of 14.04.1950 (NAO North Kazakhstan), the father is recorded as «Wassili» per the mother's statement. After the mother's marriage on 26.07.1952, the father entry was replaced with the stepfather. The author's hypothesis — Wassili Frantsevich Kreker ~1912 from Crimea — is not confirmed.
5th generation — present line
Eugen Usachew
1979 · Shakhty → Berlin
Living person: data shortened
Shakhty, Rostov region, RSFSR
Grandson of Emma Ivanovna Kröker. Son of Vladimir Nikolaevich and Lyubov Usachev. Since 2019 in Berlin (Bundesverwaltungsamt, name change 11.12.2019). Author of this ancestry archive.
No invented facts: unknown places remain marked as TODO.
Johann Kröker (Ivan Ivanovich) was born 15 November 1864 in Volhynia (exact village unknown, confirmed by EWZ file Bundesarchiv Berlin, Film B019 Frame 1340). He died in Volhynia — exact date and place unknown. According to his daughter Lydia's autobiography she was about 7 years old when he died, so approximately 1924. Emma Gotlibovna Schulz: per the 1949 Soviet file, born 1877; per the EWZ file, born 11 November 1884 in Volhynia, from the village of Wiktorowka, Baryshiv district, Kyiv Oblast. The exact birth year remains unconfirmed. Her father was Gottlieb Schulz. Per the EWZ file, Lydia's grandparents were: paternal — Gottlieb Kröker and (name unknown); maternal — Gottlieb Schulz and (name unknown). All four grandparents were 100% German. A connection between the Kröker line and the West Prussian Mennonite community is presumed — suggested by the Mennonite-typical surnames Kröker and Dreger and the ancestors' later residence in Halbstadt (Zaporizhzhia Oblast), a historical centre of Mennonite colonies in Ukraine — but this is not yet documented. Daughter Lydia Iwanovna Kröker was born 17 April 1917 in Shylesna (Dnipropetrovsk Oblast). After her father's death she attended German school in Ivanyovka only 3 years (1925-1928), then had to work. The relatives lived in Ryschelovka (Volhynia) until 1935. Around 1935 Soviet authorities forcibly resettled them to Peski village, Kharkiv Oblast. There they suffered the famine of 1932-1933 — 3-4 people died daily, no bread, not allowed to leave. On 5 June 1935 Lydia married Edmund Dreger (born 22.07.1914, Chabrowka; father: Eduard Dreger b.1884; mother: Hulda nee Hintz b.1891; confession: Evangelical Lutheran). They moved via Stalino (Donetsk) to Knarow where son Leo was born 8 June 1937. Then moved to Laakopp, Rayon Gross-Tokmak, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Lydia fell seriously ill — two operations, nursed by her mother. After recovery worked in Halbstadt. Daughter Emma Iwanovna Kröker was born 05.05.1924 in Uwarowka/Alexandrowka, Pulin district, Kyiv Oblast.
Ancestry archive — photograph
Ancestry archive · published by Eugen Usachew