Irmgard Hein Ellingson was one of the founders of the Bukovina Society of the Americas (BSA) in 1988 and is presently an international board director. A longtime member of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR), she has served on the translations and folklore committees and is now an editorial committee member. From 1993 until 1997, she was U.S. representative for the quarterly magazine Wandering Volhynians (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada).

Her publication credits include two books. The Bukovina Germans in Kansas: A 200-Year History of the Lutheran Swabians was published as Volume 6 in the Fort Hays (Kansas) State University Ethnic Heritage Series in 1987. In 1994 she translated and published Illischestie, A Rural Parish in Bukovina: Primary Source Material for Family History, an unpublished manuscript compiled by the late Johann Christian Dressler. She is currently working on a translation of Dressler's book Chronik der Bukowiner Landgemeinde Illischestie.

Her shorter works have appeared in Galizien German Descendants Newsletter, the A.H.S.G.R. Journal and Clues, Wandering Volhynians, Der Suedostdeutsche (Munich, Germany), and the Kaindl-Archiv (Stuttgart, Germany) and the 1989 Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual European Studies Conference (Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA).

She has addressed the 1993, 1996 FEEFHS conventions and at annual conventions of AHSGR, BSA, the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, and the Polish Genealogical Society of America. She has also spoken to various state and local historical groups. She became the 4th President of FEEFHS for a two year term (2002-2003).

Irmgard's research experience includes work in German, Austrian, Czech, Canadian, and American archives. She holds undergraduate degrees in political science and history and a master's degree in ministry with a concentration upon congregational history and, as a Lutheran minister, is married to a Lutheran minister.

She has given the following lectures for presentation at prior FEEFHS International Conventions:
19th and 20th Century Volhynia: Historical Overview and Research Resources
The Multi-Ethnic Eastern Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1785-1945
The German Settlement in Galicia: Historical Overview and Research
Eastern European Research: Primary Sources and Oral History

Postal address: Irmgard Hein Ellingson
P. O. Box 101
Grafton, Iowa 50440-0101
eMail address: irmgard@wctatel.net