Introduction to Geography of the Ekterinoslav Colonies by Chaim Freedman

 U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Map of the Colonies

 Grafskoy resurrected - recreating one's ancestral home

I used a satellite photo of Proletarsky, formerly Grafskoy, to recreate a photo of the home of the Komisaruk family.

I compared the current satellite photo from Google Earth which has great resolution and  was able to identify buildings based on:

Willie Komesaroff's plan of Grafskoy, drafted about 1970 and based on his memories until about 1919. (see this site).
Maps from various sources, 19th century Russia, pre and post Revolution.
Aerial photo taken by the German airforce in 1943.
Old family photographs of people and houses.
Mel Comisarow's photos taken on his visits to the colonies in 1999 and 2002.
Photos taken by local Ukrainian Orlinsky in 2010.
See all of his photos http://www.panoramio.com/user/3366156/tags/2010 (also other colonies)

I built a model of Grafskoy placing photos on a table around roads and features derived from the above sources.

Attached are photos and a video of "Grafskoy resurrected" from my presentation.

Bessarabia (Northern Section)       

Bessarabia (Southern Section)          

Kherson (Northern Section)         

Kherson (Southern Section)         

Ekaterinoslav (Northern SectionA1)         

Ekaterinoslav (Southern SectionB1)         

Ekaterinoslav (Northern SectionA2)         

Ekaterinoslav (Southern SectionB2)  

Podalsk (Balta Colonies)

1865 Mariupol District Ekaterioslav

Street map of Grafskaya

Colonies in the Crimea

Joseph Epp's Map

Zaporozhe District Map