PROJECTS:
Oral Historian/Project Consultant: Lilydale History Project for City of Lilydale, Minnesota. Project support, develop questions, plan interviews, conduct research, locate historical documents, prepare interview transcripts, create & administer Facebook page to generate interest and participation for proposed video about the history of “Lower Lilydale” along the Mississippi River in Dakota County from its beginnings until families were removed in the 1970s, and the land set aside as part of Lilydale Regional Park, 2022-2026 (various).
Oral Historian/Transcriptionist, 2025 projects: Eden Prairie Schools 100 Year Anniversary Oral History Project; Scandia Heritage Alliance, Oral Histories of Scandia, Minnesota; City of West St. Paul: The 1974 Explosion Oral History Project.
Oral Historian/Historical Researcher/Transcriptionist/Script: Norwegian Ridge Farm Families, oral history project for Giants of the Earth Heritage Center, Spring Grove, Minnesota, 2018-2025 (premiere of “Dear Land” documentary film).
Historical Researcher/Writer/Collaborator: Research for centennial anniversary of St. Stefan Romanian Orthodox Church in South St. Paul, Minnesota, 2024.
Video Production Consulting/Script Advisor, “Journeys of Identity,” documentary film about identity and multi-generational Romanian immigration to Minnesota, under contract with Heritage Organization of Romanian-Americans in Minnesota, 2024.
WWI Adopt a Soldier Project volunteer/lead: The project aims to research historical and genealogical records to create an online biography for every individual who served from Dakota County, MN. Dakota County Historical Society, 2019-2023.
Project Manager/Consultant, Documentary film: “Through the Iron Curtain from Romania,” produced by TPT under a Legacy grant to Heritage Organization of Romanian-Americans in Minnesota (HORA), 2017.
Author, Historical Researcher: The Yellowstone Trail in Carver County, publication researched and written for the Southwest Corridor Transportation Coalition under contract with Carver County Historical Society, December 2017.
Historical Researcher/Writer: Dakota County in World War I, research for 2018 exhibit, under contract with Dakota County Historical Society, South St. Paul, Minnesota, 2016-2017.
Project Manager, Oral history project: “Romanian Immigration to Minnesota During Communism,” 2015 (Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.)
Project Manager, Executive Producer, Script Writer, Documentary video: “A Thousand Dollars and Back: Early Immigration to the Twin Cities,” 2014. (Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.) [2015 Upper Midwest Regional Emmy Award Nominee.]
Project Manager, Interviewer, Researcher, Transcriptionist, Oral history project: “Early Romanian Immigration to the Twin Cities,” eleven transcripts, completed June 2013. (Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.)
Project Manager, Inventory of Cemeteries of Dakota County, Dakota County Genealogical Society for submission to Minnesota Genealogical Society, completed January 2011.
I also conduct historical and genealogical research and compile hardcover books for individual clients.
PUBLICATIONS:
Documentary Film; Researcher, Executive Co-Producer and Script Writer:
A Thousand Dollars and Back: Recollections of Early Romanian Immigration to Minnesota, with Heritage Organization of Romanian Americans in MN and Romanian Genealogy Society, 2014. View the movie trailer at https://vimeo.com/98937448.
Books, Author
The Yellowstone Trail in Carver County, researched and written for the Southwest Corridor Transportation Coalition under contract with Carver County Historical Society, December 2017. View the final report at http://www.yellowstonetrail.org/Docs/Yellowstone%20Trail%20in%20Carver%20County.pdf
Ninetieth Anniversary of St. Stefan Romanian Orthodox Church in South St. Paul, Minnesota: 1924-2014, privately printed, September 2014.
Books, Co-Author:
Dakota County Genealogical Resources, with James R. Blair, Patricia Jean and Marilyn Degen Brink, Dakota County Genealogical Society, South St. Paul, Minn., 1994.
Articles:
“Immigrants in Dakota County During WWI,” in Dakota County Historical Society’s Over the Years: Dakota County During World War I, Volume 58, Spring 2018.
“Romanians Have Deep Roots in South St. Paul,” Minnesota Genealogist, Vol. 42, No. 4, Winter 2011.
“A Thousand Dollars and Home Again?: Romanian Women’s Influence on the Immigrant Experience in South St. Paul, Minnesota, 1900-1925,” Over the Years, a publication of the Dakota County Historical Society, Vol. 40, No. 2, August 2009.
“Shaking the Family Tree,” Genealogy Columns in Over the Years, various issues.
Newsletter Author/ Editor:
Romanian Roots, quarterly newsletter of Romanian Genealogy Society, 2011-2025.
Dakota County Genealogist, Dakota County Genealogical Society, 1987-2002.
Born Young Newsletter, 1980-1999.
Vicki Albu 