Locating Ancestral Villages

Strategies for Locating Ancestral Villages: Four Case Studies
Ceil Wendt Jensen cjensen@mipolonia.net

One lucky colleague told me he identified his ancestors’ villages by asking his grandmother! Sweet and simple. For those of us who’s grandparents died before our birth- or before our interest in genealogy began- we need to use other research techniques to locate the ancestral villages.
Here are four case studies that use different finding aids and techniques to locate the village and parishes. While many traditional research techniques were employed this session addresses online tools that can help you in your quest. The case studies are from West and East Prussia, Congress Poland, Poznań and Galicia.

Starting Point: Three family documents for the WENDT family.
Tools: Kartenmeister http://www.kartenmeister.com/
Family Search http://familysearch.org/
FEEFHS Map Room http://www.feefhs.org/newest_map.html

The Wendt family knew their ancestors came from the Danzig/ Gdańsk area. The documents were issued in 1889 and 1892 and were in written in German. Without access to the proper finding aids in the mid 1970s the village could not be located. A 1970s map of Poland would not show the German name of the village. Needed was a German map of the region from the proper time period and a gazetteer to indicate the civil and religious registries. The documents were identified as issued by the Roman Catholic Church in Mühlbanz.

It was not in the Kreis of Danzig but to the south of Danzig in Kreis Dirschau.
Uwe-Karsten Krickhahn’s Kartenmeister http://www.kartenmeister.com/
is a great tool to help with the boarder and name changes of villages in the following provinces: East Prussia, including Memel, West Prussia, Brandenburg, Posen, Pomerania, and Silesia.

You can find a 1880s map in the FEEFHS Map Room
http://feefhs.org/maps/gere/ge-wprus.html
They have online the West Prussia map from Blackie & Sons Atlas (Edinburgh, 1882)
Scale: 1:1,800,000 (or one inch = about 28 miles)

Using the LDS online catalog Family Search http://familysearch.org/ the family was able to locate microfilms of the church and civil records that could be rented at the local Family History Center. The catalog on Family Search has the microfilms under both the German and Polish names. Mühlbanz, West Prussia, Germany; now, Miłobądź (Tczew), Gdańsk, Poland.

Starting Point: One Document for the PRZYTULA / PRZYTULSKI family.

Tools: Stephen S. Barthel’s East and West Prussia Gazetteer
http://progenealogists.com/resources.htmS

łownik Geograficzny http://www.polishroots.org/slownik/lidzbark.htm

Family History Library / Reference fhl@ldschurch.org

*WWI Draft Registration http://ancestry.comBaltimore Ship Manifest (Index) http://familysearch.org/, http://ancestry.com

The Przytulski family was said to have moved from “Germany to Poland” before immigration to the US. A post WWII map would not solve this 1880s problem. The migration was not west to east but north to south. From East Prussia to Congress Poland. The original document was issued in 1888 Ciborg, Strasbourg, Lautenburg. Using Stephen S. Barthel’s East and West Prussia Gazetteer the correct spelling of the location was clarified as Cibórz, Strasborg in West Prussia.

Researchers reference the multi volume Słownik Geograficzny to read a description of their village between 1880 and 1902. An English translation for Lidzbark, in the County of Brodnica is located on Polish Roots has an Entry of Lidzbark under the Słownik Geograficzny http://www.polishroots.org/slownik/lidzbark.htm

The FHC had the microfilmed records indexed as Lautenburg (Kr. Strasburg), West Prussia, Germany; now Lidzbark (Działdowo), Olsztyn, Poland.

The process had to be repeated when only one ancestor was found in the church records. Where was the earlier village? The Baltimore ship manifest listed Gross Sensk but there was no such village in the gazetteers. The document was sent to reference librarian Sonja Nishimoto at the FHC in Salt Lake and her experienced eye identified the village as Groß Lensk, Neidenburg, East Prussia. The church records contained over 150 years of family records. But the key ancestor’s 1890 birth record was still missing.

His US WWI draft registration was obtained. He had entered Cutsburg as his place of birth. Studying a map from the FEEFHS map room showed a village over the boarder in Congress Poland called Kuczbork. Since the records were not filmed the certificate was obtained by sending the bilingual request letter to the Mława archives. The form was published by Hoffman and Shea In Their Words, Volume I, Polish. (p. 151). The family’s villages spanned West Prussia, East Prussia and Congress Poland in a radius of less than 15 miles.

Starting Point: No Documents, Good Stories for the ADAMSKI family of Poznań
Tools:
*Naturalization Papers Archives of Michigan
http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17449_18635_20684---,00.html
Current map of Poland http://pilot.pl/

The Adamski line was the maternal grandmother’s line. The family didn’t have any documents for her but knew the family’s roots were in Poznań. Whether it was the city or region was unknown. A search of US marriages, births, and baptisms of her children didn’t reveal any information. It was only after re-reading family letters that a paper trail was found.

A branch of the family arrived in 1907 and, if a son had filed naturalization papers it would identify the village. Her nephew did file papers in 1922. The village of Rogalin was identified. Since this village name did not change during the partitions its location could be found on a current Polish map.

Starting Point: No Documents, One Meager Story for the ZDZIEBKO Family
Tools:
*City Directories http://www.ancestry.com/
*US Census http://heritagequestonline.com/
Ellis Island Database http://ellisislandrecords.org/; http://stevemorse.org/

Vital Records for Galician Towns http://www.polishroots.org/galicia_towns.htm

*Death Certificates http://www.vitalchek.com/
*NARA's Great Lakes Region http://www.archives.gov/facilities/il/chicago.html

The Zdziebko descendants had lost the documents as well as the family stories pertaining to their ancestor Agata Zdziebko. All that was known was that their mother had a brother who “lived on Rich St.” and they were from Galicia.

A thorough search of Detroit, MI city directories identified Zdziebkos living at 169 Rich St. US Census work identified the homeowner as Thomas Zdziebko. Obtaining their death certificates identified their father as Jan Zdziebko. Then the research hit a brick wall. It wasn’t until the Ellis Island database came online that several Zdziebko ship manifests were found. Zarzecze was listed as the home village- but the online gazetteer listed 13 villages. Which one to check? It was a daunting task and few of these parishes were available on microfilm.

So the researcher went back to the Ellis Island website. The only male from that location settled in East Chicago, Indiana. His naturalization papers were obtained from the Great Lakes Region in Chicago NARA and identified his place of birth as Zarzecze, Jasło, Austria. A Polish researcher had to be found to contact the parish in Dębowiec. The records reveled the unknown Paweł was in fact Agata and Thomas’s nephew. Again, a location found by looking at the papers of a younger generation.

* Fee for the service