Ancestors were "Wolga/Volga Deutsch", that is, German-speakers along Russia's Volga River, not far east of the Ukraine. They were brought in by Catharine the Great to settle frontier areas frequently crossed by intruders, the land not desired by ethnic Russians at the time. The invitees had left varied parts of the different Germanies, tired over religious warring, no unified modern Germany yet. Catharine's officials wanted them segregated by religion. Their rural church parish-and-farm village would be a Lutheran one. A minister was there beginning about 1785.

Spellings changed over time, Ys vs Js. Their town inside the Saratov Oblast is often spelled with Y's (Yagodnaya Polyana). That was a "sound-it-out" spelling on the Scandinavian end of the Germanics. It replaced a traditional German spelling written with J's (Jagodnaja Poljana). The name meant Berry Meadow.

A younger generation moving away went to the furthest away side, of larger town nearby, called Saratov.. Their new place once populated became Neu-Yagodnaya-Polyana (New Berry Meadow)

The region was eventually emptied of Germanic speakers. Once Russian speakers wanted the land, Germanics were "strongly encouraged" to leave. That was in the 1880s-1890s, in her parents' and grandparents' era.

Decades after the Lusts and related families left, this emptying of remaining Germanics accelerated when entry by Hitler's Germans caused a great fear. There were stories of deportations to Siberia and letters returned marked "deceased".

NEW LOCATIONS. Those migrating to the states arrived with experience in wheat-growing, but found the best land had been taken. They had to be content with semi-arid land, if wishing to farm. Others tried railroad work.

Pre-Ellis Island, entry ports varied. Many arrived via New York County port, others via Philadelphia or maybe Baltimore. Of the Lusts, some spent a few years in Orange County, NY state, at Pine Island Twp. They then moved on. Some went to to Kansas (Butler County, especially Elbing), before saving enough to attempt land purchases. One branch of the Lusts ended in eastern Washington, at Whitman County, early at Endicott, later went to Colfax and Walla Walla.

Her father and an uncle's branch went just south of Kansas, into Oklahoma. Her parents and her father's parents filed claims on land in Major County.

They were just south of the Cimmaron R., on land where Cleo Twp and Crowell Twp. meet, north of Hwy 412. The far point of their land was maybe five miles past Cleo Springs and a few miles past their Post office town of Orienta.

GERMANIC ISSUES IN THE NEW PLACE. Germanic names can be hard to track. Early Germanics often had a first name and two middle names that ministers would write down. A son's first two names might be for a grandfather and/or father, shared by multiple sons, a third name was the "tie-breaker" that the younger ones might feel obligated to use, older family having"dibs" on the shared names, not needing the tie-breaker.

It was common to see the first name as John/Johan with tie-breaker middle names of Charles or William or Henry. The problem? Clerks trained in British rules refused to write them all out. They might only put the first, causing different people to have the same name. Only church record contained the full names. A compromise appearing later? They would allow a middle initial. Until then, people might resort to using nicknames.

Her grandfather immigrated as Johan/Johannes (way too common!!), translated as John (even more common!). Her father, judging from his farm locations in the 1920s, had filed for homestead land circa 1910 as "Heinrich" (deed and final payment date on file at BLM.gov for Major County, Oklahoma).

OFF TO SCHOOL. A decade or two later, when filling out school censuses for her and the other children still at home, the former Heinrich signed as "Henry". Section 19 or Section 24, part of describing their homestead locations, was written at the top, along with Orienta as the rural P.O.

He then listed the children by age and signed. When the eldest still living at home, she was listed as Lizzie, which might have been sounded out as nickname "Lisce" (Lizzie with soft Zs, if pronounced a Germanic way). Once married, being Elizabeth Meyer stopped confusion with other Elizabeth Lusts. She could be Elizabeth, despite others called Elizabeth Lust, now needed no nickname.

A KEY BROTHER. Her younger brother, Charles William Lust, would be a barber later, in Fairview. He was "the only Charles Lust married to a Velda", unique in that way, no children.

Earlier, decades away from marriage, he farmed for someone. WW I began to require US assistance. He registered with the draft board in the county where he worked. His work was further west along Hwy 412, up in the Panhandle, for a Lust relative who had filed for land in Beaver County, as John C Lust. (C for Charles? likely a brother to her father? Or...?) After naming his employer as John C Lust, her brother next replied that his closest relative was Henry Lust of Orienta.

Earlier, John C and a vague Henry Lust each had homesteads in Beaver County, in the same township, by Boyd. Though considerably west of Orienta, they were still on what became Hwy 412, where it angles up into the Panhandle, in Beaver County.

If John C was an uncle, then her brother had two cousins nearly identical in name, Carl in German, translating into Charles in English. Similar in age, the three did not resort to using their middle initials until about WW I and the 1920 Census.

CARL G vs CHARLEY W vs CHARLES E. The eldest, having the least need for uniqueness, only called himself Carl G once, in maybe one Census? (Again, the usual Germanic rule was that the eldest "had dibs" on skipping his middle initial.) He appeared to have been a son of John C. Lust, as up in Beaver County. He and her brother's draft registration cards were one after the other in the Beaver County set, pressuring her brother to use Charley W.

The third cousin, maybe distant, maybe not a first cousin, relationship not "puzzled out", would use Charles E Lust, out in Washington state, not obviously seen in OK or California.. He was long a station agent for a railroad, buried in Walla Walla, in Washington, west of the Rockies.

DUST BOWL VS. CALIFORNIA. The nation hit hard times in the Great Depression, made worse in Oklahoma and parts of the lower Midwest, due to Dust Bowl conditions blowing away soil in dryer places.

Luckier than many, her barber brother and her station agent cousin kept their jobs, true through at least the 1950 Census. Her barbering brother, Charley W, out of farming early, moved to California not long before his death. (To retire, if ill?) His widow Velda then remarried, out in California.

Those farming would have a much, much harder time than those with "town jobs". Some were out to California before the 1940 Census, working as fruit pickers, etc., still doing that for the 1950 Census, likely happy to be employed, given some relatives were not.

A sad thing--Those hitting hard times , clear from censuses, more often had graves without stones and/or graves not easily found.

Research by JB, contributor 48697180, covering some Lust in-laws of her spouse's great uncle, who married a Lust.