From an interview of Elizabeth Bickler-Sister Bernadine BB: You know, I have a certificate from Ellis Island and they say they came from Bessarabia, my grandparents. [My father, Lewis Bickler was born in Colätts, Bessarabia while his father Michael Buechler was working on construction projects in Bessarabia and Rumania. The family then returned to the Kutschurgan village of Mannheim, Russia before immigrating to the US in March, 1903].