Descendants from the Odessa Line have settled in Arizona.
The family history of Ed Bischoff from Mesa, Arizona
(Dettling line Salzstetten-Odessa)
I was born in 1941 in Rugby Pierce County North Dakota to Vincent and Gertrude Schmidt Bischoff. I am the third great-grand son of Joseph Bischoff from Seltz Alsace France (b: abt. 1765) and Johannes Dettling born (1770) in Saltzstetten Waldachtal Würtemberg. 
Both Joseph and Johannes emigrated to the Odessa Russia area in 1808 with their families. Because of the shortage of land both of my ancestors
relocated to villages near Rasdelnaja. My grandfather, Nikolaus Bischoff, was born in Ponjatowka (The Germans called this village Langenberg) and my grandmother Theresa Dettling was born in Adamovka.
Nikolaus and his family emigrated in 1899 and settled near Berwick McHenry County North Dakota, Theresa's family emigrated in 1907 and they settled
near Blumenfeld McHenry County North Dakota.
was the oldest of six children. Our family was rather small compared to other farm families. Our neighbor had 16 children. On our farm we raised cattle, pigs and chickens. We also had cows that we milked and mom made butter and sold the cream. We grew wheat, barley, oats and some times flax.
Our area was mostly Germans from Russia that came from the Catholic villages around Odessa, Russia. We only associated with non-Germans in school as about half of the students were from Scandinavian Countries. Many families spoke German at home which caused a problem in school for their children. The teacher would make the first graders go through the
grade twice to give them a chance to learn English Compared to today we had small classes. My high school graduating class only had eight students and most of these were my cousins.
Our social life consisted of school during the school year. When school was not in session it was mainly church for a few minutes after mass. In the winter we kids played marbles, checkers and card games. 
During the summer we rarely mixed with any other children. My parents played cards with the neighbors during the winter months and would go to weddings and name-day parties.
In 1959 I joined the military service. After my discharge I spent 40 years working in the state of California in the computer field.
There are two German from Russia organizations in the United States:
Germans from Russia Heritage Society (GRHS): Most of these members are from the Odessa area.
American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR): whose members are largely composed of Germans from the Volga region.
I started doing volunteer work for GRHS in the 1990s. I have been involved with two large projects. This was indexing Einwandererzentralstelle Application Records (EWZ). This included the records the German government required of the ethnic Germans living in Russia before they could immigrate to Poland. These records can be found at http://odessa3.org/ website. The other project I am currently involved in is the translation and posting of letters. In the early years the German-Russians that immigrated to North and South America would send letters to the local German newspapers and they would print them. By having the letter printed in the newspapers the writer could send his message to many relatives and neighbors. An index of over 7,500 letters can be found on the GRHS website, but unfortunately, you must be a member to view them.
Each year we attend a convention sponsored by GRHS. This has been an opportunity to meet and exchange information with other descendants of German-Russian heritage. They have many interesting and informative presentations and lectures at the convention. Most recently I met, Alex Herzog, who also has Dettling ancestry. Alex was born in Russia where his father was a school teacher. He is also a member of the family Dettling organization.
In my retirement, my wife, Doris and I enjoy attending baseball games. The winters in Arizona are very mild and baseball is played all year long. Our professional baseball team the Diamondbacks (named after our dangerous rattlesnake) play in a covered stadium where the temperature is kept at
a comfortable 72 degrees even though it could be 110 degrees outside. We also enjoy hockey and basketball, and football.
Remark from Andrea: Ed got in contact with the Dettling-community via our website in 2008. He visited the Dettling-reunion and has supported our Dettling-research by scanning the old church records in the archive of the mormons.
A big thank you for all your efforts and support!