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About Mark Rabideau

http://many-roads.com

Posts by Mark Rabideau:

Understanding the German Past

/ German Genealogy Pointers, Tools / 3 Comments

German Genealogy is not much different from any other genealogy. You really need to have a plan as you begin your research, especially if you are unfamiliar with the region/ area or time period. Never assume that one locale looks like or offers information or data in the same as another. Each area, region or time frame offers its own unique idiosyncrasies, its own information. German research is really no different in this regard from other places; it is not the US or Canada and the available data is different from that commonly available in North America.  Having said all that, this posting is more of a concrete example on how to approach Genealogy research; what works for me, may or may not work for you.
research

Let me begin by saying that most of my genealogy researches have taken place in the areas of Germany listed below; also, it is important to note that my research is almost exclusively in the timeframe of 1600-1945.  Most frequently my family and client information are sourced from the provinces of:

  1. West Prussia (Westpreußen)(ethnically cleansed of Germans after WW2, now Poland)
  2. East Prussia (Ostpreußen) (ethnically cleansed of Germans after WW2, now Poland)
  3. Pomerania (Pommern) (ethnically cleansed of Germans after WW2, now Poland)
  4. Alsace-Lorraine (Elsaß- Lothringen) (largely ethnically cleansed of Germans after WW1, now part of France)
  5. Hesse (Hessen)
  6. Rhein-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz)

I have provided links to each of the areas I research, as an example; it is important for everyone, me included, to know ‘a little’ about the area and times in which a target population lived. I have provided links to Wikipedia because Wikipedia is easily accessed, reasonably accurate, and readily available.  However, do not assume that the histories in Wikipedia are consistent with others you may find or need to find.  As a matter of fact, if you can read German, look up a single region (above) in the English version of Wikipedia and then in the German version of Wikipedia; often you will discover significant differences in facts and emphasis. More importantly, once you have researched something in Wikipedia, look up the same time or place in a text book (I have numerous historical texts located on ManyRoads, for you to view.). Again, you will notice variations in the accounts of ‘the same history’.

It is worth noting that historical variations are exacerbated by crucial factors such as the loss of a war.  In other words, knowing the American or British account of a battle or war is not the same as knowing a German account.  If you are attempting to understand what may have happened to a relative who was’ on the other side’ of an event; you need to understand ‘their’ perspective, not just the one you may have been taught in school.

So what does all of this mean?

Well as you begin your search, learn a bit about the times (from the perspective of those who lived there).  A balanced view of what was going on, or survived that time, will provide you with good clues on where to search and what you might expect to find. Do not assume that a single account or family story will provide you with an adequate understanding of who your relatives were and what ’caused’ them to act the way they did (ie. emigrate to the US, join the SS, or help Jews escape).

Remember popular history is always written by the victors; Germans rarely found themselves in that role… in the last century.  As a result the history you ‘know’ may not explain the choices your German relatives made or even the options they had.  You simply need to dig a little deeper.

Finding German Genealogy Data

/ German Genealogy Pointers, Tools / 2 Comments

So where are the best places to find German Genealogy data?

I hear this question, or something similar, often.  Perhaps it is because I am an American that I notice, but it seems most Americans I hear from expect to find German Genealogical record keeping and data ought to mirror that in the US. Unfortunately, they do not.  A number of historical factors impact the quality and type of genealogical records to be found in Germany today.

researchWhat follows are a few points regarding German history that merit understanding:

  1. A number of fairly destructive wars ran over German lands.  These wars not only destroyed people and buildings, but also innumerable records. The big ones were WW1 and WW2 (they made all the newspapers…).
  2. About 30% of German historical lands were ethnically cleansed by the allies following the second World War (some 100,000 square miles of land including West Prussia, East Prussia, Silesia, Suedetenland, Pommerania, etc.).  This forceable removal (up rooting) of some 14+/- million people, scattered families (and their histories) to the four corners of the world; additionally some 3+/- million died in the removal. Many who were left had no possessions or historical documentation, of any type. You may read more on this topic here.
  3. Before 1871, Germany did not exist as a single  political entity.  As a result, pre-1871 records vary greatly in terms of type, style and quality.  Each government did ‘their own’ thing.
  4. German governments have historically not maintained the same type of separation between Church and State as was originally promised in the US constitution and their records reflect this different relationship.

So where does one look?

  1. In my experience, the single greatest well of information are German Church records.  Nearly all births, deaths, marriages, were recorded by German Churches.  All you need to know is the village, town or area, and religion of your family member and you can begin a search.  The two primary state supported faiths in Germany were Lutheran (Evangelisch) and Roman Catholic (Katholisch).  Here are a couple additional tips on this subject. In small communities Menonnites and Jews were often listed in Lutheran Churches, less often in Catholic. In communities where these smaller faith communities had their own institutions, those should be searched.  Most German Church records are available from the LDS Church (You can look them up here.).  If the Church you are seeking did not receive a ‘Volltreffer’ (direct hit) from the allies before its records were pulled, the LDS Family History Archives likely have a copy (Note: not all LDS data is available in Germany).
  2. Addressbooks for many communities do exist (they become more frequent as you get nearer to 1900).  You may view numerous examples on ManyRoads.
  3. Few civil records exist from the German Eastern provinces, although Poland is making those that remain in their jurisdiction available through dlibra as well as other sources (see links here).  I sure hope your Polish is better than mine!
  4. And lastly, if you are very lucky, there are some limited Census records for select regions.

As I get the inclination, I’ll post other thoughts on this subject. In the meantime, feel free to send me any questions you might have and I’ll include them in a future post on this subject.

German Name Spellings

/ German Genealogy Pointers, Tools / 1 Comment

For those unfamiliar with, or simply wishing to learn more about, conducting German/ Prussian genealogical research this is my second posting in a series on the topic of German-Prussian Genealogy Pointers.research

One of the greatest difficulties people have with researching Germanic family members involves name spellings.  This is especially true for those English speakers.  Over the centuries, Germans who emigrated into English speaking lands have either tried to spell their names in ways that would be pronounced correctly or had assistance with their name spellings upon arrival or ‘later’ in Census takings.  This ‘help’ has lead to numerous challenges in finding the right folks in the old homeland (Heimatland).

Here are a couple of rules of thumb I use when attempting to find ancestors in the old country:

  • ie- ei: Do you remember the old rule, when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking? If you do remember the rule, be aware that when dealing with German names the reverse is true (assuming you are using American vowel sounds).  Imagine if you will your name was Stein… in the states that often is pronounced as Steen so you change the spelling and presto your relatives are now just a bit harder to find.
  • sh – sch: Or suppose a valued surname was once Schlatter, in the US the name is frequently spelled as either Shlatter or Shlater.  Notice, these are all a bit different!
  • V – F: Another interesting one I have stumbed across is the German surname Vogel, when pronounced using US sounds it is often spelled as Fogel.  This places your searches in a whole new location within the alphabet.
  • W – V: W in German sounds very much like an American ‘v’ and the V sounds like an American F.  Just blend this option in with the one immediately above and imagine the permutations you can begin to develop.
  • ss- sz- ß or plain s: All these sounds in US English pronounce about the same, but not quite so in German.  However, your emigrant/ immigrant relatives could easily have changed their names to use ss, s, sz in the English speaking world while the real family name could have been spelled with ss, sz, or ß in the alte Heimat (old home).
  • AE – Ä – E: In German, Ä and AE offer the same sound which sounds roughly like an American ‘eh’.  Depending upon your original surname this can lead to interesting permutations of family names.

If you couple all the above options, with the fact that many immigrants were less than perfect in their spelling and literacy skills, you can begin to find great variations in name spellings within the US and across the pond.

For more on this subject, you might wish to read the following:

 

<img src=”http://www.many-roads.com/wp-content/uploads/research.png” alt=”research” title=”research” width=”150″ height=”165″ class=”alignright size-medium wp-image-3723″ />

Conducting Better German Research

/ German Genealogy Pointers, Tools / / 6 Comments

Recently, I have received numerous queries on how to get started or better conduct German genealogy research.  Rather than simply email folks one at a time, I thought a post on the subject might be useful.research

By way of background, I ought to state that almost everyone I hear from tells me that they are:

  • German (of German descent)
  • the neither read nor speak German (or just very little)
  • few are aware of much German history
  • fewer are aware of their family’s cultural background in Germany

Having provided the little list above likely provides clues as to items researchers need to pay attention to:

  1. If you do not speak the language and decide to use translators, like Google Translate, beware that machine translation can be extremely inaccurate. One small example, Google translate almost always translates Reich to rich rather than to empire.  When looking at a record this DOES make a difference.
  2. Learn your history.  Germany was not unified until 1871.  Before 1871 there were numerous Duchies, Kingdoms, etc. Each region has its own history, governments, records, customs, etc.
  3. Additionally some 30-40% of German lands were cleansed of almost all indigenous German populations after WW2; these lands do not fall under German control today and record searching can be quite interesting.
  4. If your family lives in a non-German speaking country today, your family name may not be spelled in a Germanic fashion.  Try to determine more traditional and true spellings for the names you seek.  A good example of this is evidenced by a German-Jewish descended friend of mine, today his family surname is Rock; in the old country, it used to be Stein.
  5. Before WW2, Germans used Gothic print and script.  Most Americans find German Gothic script to be difficult.  The LDS Church provides cheat sheets for these.(You will find a few helpful links listed under Language Tools on our Links page).

As I get the inclination, I’ll post other thoughts on this subject. In the meantime, feel free to send me any questions you might have and I’ll include them in a future post on this subject.

Die Gefangenen – Ab nach Sibirien (ZDF)

/ Videos, WW2 / 0 Comment

Die Gefangenen – Ab nach Sibirien (ZDF – a documentary about German prisoners of war who were sent to camps in Siberia)

 

Verlorene Heimat – Flucht und Vertreibung (MDR)

/ Expulsion - Vertriebenen, Videos / 0 Comment

Verlorene Heimat – Flucht und Vertreibung (MDR)

Unfortunately, it is not easy or simple to find factual information about controversial subjects like die Vertreibung (the Expulsion). We extend our sincerest appreciation to all our readers who have shared their experiences, links, articles, and photos on the subject.

We hope that you find these videos informative and helpful in developing a more complete and balanced understanding of what happened to Eastern Germans following the loss of World War 2.

For more background on why we present this information, please read:
On the “Vertreibung”, Expulsions, and Hope .

Note: as with most YouTube videos these films are presented in segments most frequently around 10 minutes in length.

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Wo sind meine Eltern? (postwar German TV)

/ Expulsion - Vertriebenen, Videos / 0 Comment

Wo sind meine Eltern? (postwar German TV)

Unfortunately, it is not easy or simple to find factual information about controversial subjects like die Vertreibung (the Expulsion). We extend our sincerest appreciation to all our readers who have shared their experiences, links, articles, and photos on the subject.

We hope that you find these videos informative and helpful in developing a more complete and balanced understanding of what happened to Eastern Germans following the loss of World War 2.

For more background on why we present this information, please read:
On the “Vertreibung”, Expulsions, and Hope .

Note: as with most YouTube videos these films are presented in segments most frequently around 10 minutes in length.

More

Die Gustloff (ZDF)

/ Expulsion - Vertriebenen, Videos / 0 Comment

Two documentaries on the Gustloff from ZDF (on YouTube).

  1. Die Gustloff – Hafen der Hoffnung (ZDF)
  2. Die Gustloff – Flucht über die Ostsee (ZDF)

Unfortunately, it is not easy or simple to find factual information about controversial subjects like die Vertreibung (the Expulsion). We extend our sincerest appreciation to all our readers who have shared their experiences, links, articles, and photos on the subject.

We hope that you find these videos informative and helpful in developing a more complete and balanced understanding of what happened to Eastern Germans following the loss of World War 2.

For more background on why we present this information,  please read:
On the “Vertreibung”, Expulsions, and Hope .

More

Flucht und Vertreibung – Das Schicksal der Vertriebenen (ZDF)

/ Expulsion - Vertriebenen, Videos / 0 Comment

One of the most comprehensive documentaries on the German Expulsions & Flight from ZDF (on YouTube).

Unfortunately, it is not easy or simple to find factual information about controversial subjects like die Vertreibung (the Expulsion). We extend our sincerest appreciation to all our readers who have shared their experiences, links, articles, and photos on the subject.

We hope that you find these videos informative and helpful in developing a more complete and balanced understanding of what happened to Eastern Germans following the loss of World War 2.

For more background on why we present this information, please read:
On the “Vertreibung”, Expulsions, and Hope .

More

Whoa, Backup!

/ Tips & Opinions, Tools / 0 Comment

Backups, file duplication, redundancy, security are essential dimensions of performing quality genealogy work; well honestly they are required for any type of computing.  Having said that, most people don’t bother with any of this unless, and until, they have a catastrophe, and even then only for a short while after an accident.

To my mind these functions need to be easy, seamless and nearly automagic once they are established.  All this is to say, data synchronization and backup must require very little, if any, extra effort or thought.  Extra effort or thought are almost always extra… and extra things tend to get forgotten.

Like many of you over the past few months, I have read and ‘participated’ in numerous discussions regarding “what happens to my data when I’m gone“.  Truth be told, it is worth even more to have a plan to make certain you can use your data while you’re here.  And then, you can make certain it is available for others when you are gone.  If your data does not survive you working on it, it hardly matters what is left when you’re gone.

So let me provide a bit of food for thought on the topic. To begin, I will briefly describe my simple working computer environment:

  • in my home office, I have a slow and unreliable Qwest “high-speed” network, which really means we have a poorly performing DSL network;  the only reason we keep this network is because no one else will bring us a network of any type (sad but true)
  • my primary PC is an Asus K52F running 10.4 LTS Ubuntu Linux (yep, a geek)
  • my travel buddy is a netbook PC- an eeePC 1000HE running 10.10 Ubuntu Linux
  • I also have a nifty iPad to augment my image as super geek and cool old genealogy guy…

Given I have multiple PCs and I’m lazy, my objective is to keep the Netbook and K52F fully synchronized so that the same data is available on whichever PC (Asus) I pickup. My super cool iPad is slightly different in that it is set to access pre-selected information/data for reading and display purposes (this information, too, needs to be both current and synchronized with my other machines).  In addition to gaining information access, I want to be certain that my PCs are continually backed up and that all data is available for easy recovery, at any time. Lastly, I want my data to be 100% secure, redundant, and stored non-locally, call me paranoid.

What all of this means is that:

  • I need to store my data on a Cloud server which offers a zero-knowledge account; in my case, all my files are directly encrypted on my source PC and my password never leaves my PCs.  Sooo, I have to be certain NOT to loose either my username or password (they are my responsibility, not the responsibility of some service provider).  My service provider can access neither my files nor my passwords.
  • all of my data is encrypted using AES, RSA and SHA for security purposes- the same algorithms used for government security
  • the Cloud server needs to have its files stored redundantly and in different locations, in my case this includes storage in Switzerland, Germany and France (I live in Colorado)

Wuala, the provider I am currently using, does all these things.  Plus, it offers its services on Windows, Mac, and Linux.  Their tools can also be operated directly from any PC using a browser, without one of my PCs ever being involved. Finally, this system integrates on each of my PCs as a network drive, so I am able to open and edit my files in the application of my choice (there are one or two other providers of roughly similar services, including SpiderOak).

As a genealogist, this system also allows me to send links to files and folders to anyone. Recipients can click directly on a provided link and access designated files in their browsers.  This feature will allow me to provide better information access to my clients, a service which I am about to begin providing.

So what does this really do for me?  Here’s a small list of what I see as benefits:

  • my stuff is backed up- I am pretty certain (99.999% certain, I will always be able to get at a copy of my information)
  • each of my PCs have access to current data (anything I view is current and accurate)
  • my data is less prone to local disaster, because it is spread across the planet
  • once setup, all of this takes place with very little intervention on my part (remember I am lazy)

And perhaps most importantly, I can give my designee access to everything I own. My information is safe for use both while I am here and when I am gone. By either handing a designee my PC or by setting them up to share all or parts of my data files, images, videos, a full, or partial, suite of my materials can be securely transfered to my successors, users, and/or clients.

If you might want to learn more about the specific environment I use from Wuala please use this link.  If you sign-up for a free account, I’ll get some additional disk space added to my available allotment.

Genealogy- iPad or Netbook?

/ Tips & Opinions, Tools / 7 Comments

Lately, I have gotten a lot of questions about the little computers I carry around to help with my genealogy tasks. Questions like:

  • What do you think of the iPad?
  • Do you like your Netbook?

In general, people want to know how I like the devices and whether they should consider buying one or more for themselves. This post is an attempt to respond to those questions.

Let me begin by saying I have been working with computers since 1974.  Yep, I am an old guy, old PC habits, old PC biases.  I have them all.  But in fairness, you need to be aware of this as I am certain my background colors my opinions.

Data entry:

Let me start this out by saying I am writing this post on my regular PC; I am not using either of the little guys. To my mind this speaks to the biggest problems with these little devices- data entry. Both machines offer facilities to perform data entry but one is much more severely constrained than the other.

The iPad’s on screen keyboard is nothing short of horrible, to be honest it is my greatest disappointment with the iPad itself. iPads offer an peculiar two stage alphabetic/ numeric keyboard which is missing any directional positioning keys (arrows). It is, for me, an incredibly uncomfortable and difficult typing experience. Not being a perfect typist to begin with, the iPad brings my error rates to new heights. And as for speed, it takes me at least three times longer to enter text on the iPad than it does on the Netbook (which is slower than my regular laptop). Oh how I long for the days of Palm/ Handspring Graffiti.  In fairness, it’s not as if the netbook is without it’s faults here, too. Tiny keys, too big fingers make for difficult and slow typing; but, functional it is.

Compatibilty with other PC applications:

Here I have to say the Netbook is again the winner. The iPad has a large application base but they are different from those available on PC platforms, be they Windows, Mac or Linux (like I use). All this is to say, your favorite genealogy programs will not run on an iPad but they will (with just a little planning) run very nicely on a Netbook.

Screen image quality:

WOW! what else can I say about the iPad screen.  My Netbook is okay, but not WOW!

Adverts/ Advertisements:

iPads are an advertisers’ dream. Adverts are simply everywhere. To eliminate them requires that a user “Jailbreak” the iPad in order to get access to ‘apps’ that block adware. Netbooks, like regular PCs, are perfectly capable of blocking ads; all you need are the correct browser(s) and correct browser plugin(s). This function may not seem that important on a 17″ monitor but it is hugely significant when you have only ~60% of the screen real estate – as is offered on these little guys.

USB, webcam, SD card availability:

Netbooks offer these on even the cheapest models. Not so the iPad.

OS (Operating System) interoperability:

One of the most frustrating aspects of the iPad, for me, is the fact that the iPad does not recognize, interface well with, or support Linux. It requires a Windows or Mac to initially boot and from that point to backup. It assumes all systems functions will be managed through an iTunes (Apple) proprietary interface. The Libertarian in me does not like that at all. Netbooks do not have that same proprietary bend.

Modification or removal of included applications:

All PC vendors seem to want to pollute their devices with preferred apps. Netbooks and iPads are no exception. However although it is time consuming to clean up a Netbook of undesirable applications, it can be done. But the iPad, nope. You get to keep the silly map, video, photo, iPod apps whether you want them or not. So I have moved mine onto an unused subordinate-screen.

Window to window (screen to screen) navigation:

Because of the tiny screen sizes, navigation is not easy on either machine. But it is easier on the Netbook because of a users ability to use short-cut keys and traditional navigation to move from A to B. However, the iPad touch screen navigation is much more Fun & Cool. iPad navigation is also built around some very nice eye candy, like turning pages. Truly cool and not bad, just different. I am certain that the iPad screen navigation is the wave of the future.  The zoom and movement functions are intuitive and fun to learn, but learn them you must because the iPad smart phone navigation screens will surely take over.  They are simply to good not to.

Size & weight:

Both devices are in the same weight and size class. Screens are about 10 inches, and the weight is in the 2-3 (US) pound range- about 1 kg.

Cost:

The iPad is the clear winner here! An iPad costs, on average, twice what a Netbook does. Hmmm, maybe that’s not being a winner? Well, Apple thinks it is.

Coolness & fun factor:

Although the Netbook does have a certain Lilliputian coolness to it, it is nothing like the coolness the iPad has. People really seem to like the iPad form factor and ‘finger’/ touch screen navigation. As always, Apple has a real design winner in the iPad space. The Netbooks really simply look like laptops that were washed in too hot water and were left for an extra cycle or two in the dryer.

The bottom line:

The bottom line, is I will gladly keep them both. I like them both, a lot. But if I am forced to carry only one device with me to do my research, I choose the Netbook.  But I have my weights out and am building my strength because I don’t want to leave my iPad behind.

9th Semi-irregular ManyRoads Newsletter

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I apologize for delay in getting our semi-irregular newletter out.  Things have been a bit hectic and my network has been unreliable.  Also for those who follow my writings in the various Groups within which I am a participant, you may have noticed I have been uploading a lot of information to ManyRoads.  Unfortunately that becomes very problematic when the network doesn’t work well.

Once again, numerous, very thoughtful and generous folks have sent us materials to share on the web. We greatly appreciate the ‘donations’ and will make them available as we are able. If you have photos, maps, stories that you think fit with our audience and subject matter, we’d love to hear from you.

Anyway here are ManyRoads major updates for the last 30+ days:

Danzig Maps – Danziger Landkarten
Übersichtskarte von Mitteleuropa Danzig- 1902
Danzig
Danzig- 1886
Danzig- 1910
Danzig- 1910(2)
Danzig- 1918
Danzig- 1932
Danziger Gebiet
Danziger und der Weichselkorridor
Danzig-Westpreusssen
Gebiete Freie Staat Danzig

Germany until 1945
Northern Germany (Nord Deutschland)- 1910
Germany – Deutschland- 1937
German Empire- Deutsches Reich- 1937

Stettin
Stettin- 1910

Königsberg
Königsberg-1887
Königsberg-1910

Thorn
Thorn- 1910

East & West Prussia – Ost und West Preußen
Ostpreussen
Ostpreussen- 1882
Ostpreußen 30 April 1945
Ostpreussen- 1882
Ostpreussen Landkarte- unknown date
Preussen- unknown date
Preussen- 1751 (La Prusse)
Preussen Politische Uebersicht
Westpreussen
Westpreussen- 1882
Westpreussen- 1900
Westpreussen- Mallek Gross
West und Ost Preussen- 1896
West & East Prussia- 1906
Ost und Westpreussen
Westpreussen und Danziger Bucht
Ostpreussen- 2
Westpreussen- 2
Heimat Preussen

Vertreibung Landkarten (German Expulsion Maps)
Vertriebene aus den deutschen Ostgebieten 1
Vertriebene aus den deutschen Ostgebieten 2
Vertriebene aus den deutschen Ostgebieten 3
1945 Aufteilung Deutschland

For those researching Central Europe and the Baltic regions, I have placed 14
maps covering the time from the late Roman Empire (around 400) up to 1812 on
ManyRoads.

Soviet Gulags
Gulags
Gulag Slavery
Russian Memorial Gulag Map

World War 2 Maps
Allied Occupation Zones- 1945
Attack of the Red Army- Jan. to April 1945
Eastern Front- Jan.to May 1945
Generalne Gubernatorstwo- 1945
Aufteilung Deutschland- 1945
Reichsgaue- 1941
Abstimmungsgebiete

On one of the Yahoo groups in which I participate, I noticed that people seemed to be struggling a bit to understand when, where, and when Germans moved into Eastern Europe (including places like Pommerania, West Prussia, East Prussia). I have posted a VERY simple, map tutorial covering German and other Central European peoples migrations and/or locations before the World Wars.

I hope this post helps makes it a bit easier to understand and find what types of people may have lived near the areas you are researching.

The following West/East Prussia addressbooks (and now we have several from Pommern as well…) have newly been added to ManyRoads. Looks like it about time to rearrange things.

Marienwerder Adressbuch- 1909
Marienwerder Adressbuch- 1912
Marienwerder Adressbuch- 1917
Marienwerder Adressbuch- 1926

Elbinger Jahrbuch- 1923
Elbinger Jahrbuch- 1933
Elbinger Jahrbuch- 1936

Die Familiennamen von Stolp und Umgebung im 16 Jahrhundert
Stolp Adressbuch- 1914
Stolp Adressbuch- 1920
Stolp Adressbuch- 1931
Stolp Adressbuch- 1936
Stolp Adressbuch- 1938

Stettin Adressbuch und Geschaeftshandbuch-1900
Stettin Adressbuch- 1901
Stettin Adressbuch- 1903
Stettin Adressbuch- 1906
Stettin Adressbuch- 1943
Stettin Adressbuch- 1914
Stettin Adressbuch- 1931
Stettin Adressbuch- 1932

Zoppot Adressbuch- 1911
Zoppot Adressbuch- 1917-1918
Zoppot Adressbuch- 1936-1937

Finally the list! Here are other ManyRoads items of note published during the past month or so:

As always, I want to request any/all of you who have genealogical websites please consider reciprocal linking with ManyRoads. There is no cost and both your site and ManyRoads will benefit from the links. Simply place a link to http://many-roads.com on your site; send me an email letting me know you have made the link; and, I’ll place a link to your site.

Frieda Senger- Cyrillic Conversion

/ Expulsion - Vertriebenen, Senger, Tips & Opinions, Tools / , , / 2 Comments

As many of you are aware, I have been trying to decipher a Russian document that Soviets created as justification for sending my grandmother into a Gulag following WW2. To help me with my sleuthing, I have found and used the following tools:

  1. Russian letters & script
  2. Russian online keyboard
  3. Automatic Cyrillic Converter

My grandmother’s document may be viewed here: Frieda Senger -Suchdienst & Soviet Records.

What I did to help me in my search was to carefully look at the Cyrillic script and attempt to define each letter using the script as presented on the site at item 1 above. Once I found (or thought I found) the script letters, I entered them in using the Russian On-line Keyboard (using item 2 above). With the typed words in hand, I Googled and yanexed (Russian search engine) seeking hits on my words. In my case, they did not find anything useful.

SO next, I used the Automatic Cyrllic converter (item 3 above). Entering phonetic variations on my grandmother’s hometown (Zeyervorderkampen) in the converter, I discovered that the Cyrillic script/ typing looked an awful lot like Zeyervorderkampen.  Originally it had been translated as Zecher Werder- Kosipel, but I could not find anything that matched that name or anything close to it.

Being a big proponent of following the obvious, I now assume that my Oma’s bill of indictment does not place her in a location other than Zeyervorderkampen prior to her 2 plus year incarceration in the Chelyabinskaya Gulag.

Also today, I received the following note from my friend Martin:

Mark, hier kommt nun mein Versuch zur Klärung Deiner Frage:
1. In der russischen Anklageschrift wird als Geburtsort Pietzkendorf , Rayon (Kreis) Groß Werder genannt. In dem Schreiben vom DRK München vom 15.1.2010 heißt der Geburtsort Zeyer(s)vorderkampen. Pietzkendorf liegt etwas westlich von Tiegenhof, das andere Dorf Zeyersvorderskampen liegt östlich, im Nogatdelta, aber beides im Kreis Großes Werder. Woher die widersprüchlichen Angaben kommen, ist mir nicht klar.
2. in dem gleichen russischen Papier, nur eine Zeile tiefer, wird der Wohnort bezeichnet mit “Zecher-Ferder- Kaxxxx.
Ich lese das als Zeyervorderkampen. Das Y im Zeyer… hat der Mann wohl als X gelesen, das ist das cha im russischen Alphabet, also Zecher…
Ferder könnte man wohl mit Vorder.. übersetzen (wie gehört, gesprochen), und das dritte Wort beginnt zumindest mit Ka.., die weiteren Buchstaben kann nicht mal meine Irina entziffern. Dafür habe ich meinen Freund, russischer Übersetzer, morgen hier, und dann hoffe ich, dass wir das endgültig klären.
Grüße über den Teich – Martin

I may not be right, but I feel confident that I am closer to the truth today than I was two days ago when I started.

Zeyer- the end

/ Kreis Elbing, WW2 / , , , / 0 Comment

Recollections of an officer of the chief administrative district in Zeyer.

Johannes Jahn, farmer and farm owner in Zeyersvorderkampen.
see original document

This document has been translated and reworked with additional family history
by Mark Rabideau.
zeyer ev. kirche The District of Zeyer was located in the northeast corner of the Free State of Danzig, in the area that included the towns of Grosses Werder, Zeyer, Stuba and Schlangenhaken. The district followed the Nogat River, starting at the village Zeyer to the Vistula Lagoon estuary. The total area of the District was about 2510 hectares (~6200 acres)  of which 480 hectares (`1200 acres) were the village of Zeyer, Stuba with the village of Neudorf was about 610 hectares (~1500 acres) , Zeyersvorderkampen about 1020 hectares (~2500 acres)  and Schlangenhaken another 400 hectares (~1000 acres). The total population of the district was roughly 1735 inhabitants of German descent and origin. The population was exclusively engaged/ employed in agriculture and related professions.

Up until 1945, the farms located in the area were in good condition. The majority of the farms and agricultural property holdings were small to medium sized. The lands of Zeyersvorderkampen were particularly favorable to dairies; the larger farms historically were also devoted to rapeseed, wheat, and sugar beet cultivation.

While Zeyer and Stuba were built-up areas, Zeyersvorderkampen and Schlangenhaken were so-called scattered settlements. Zeyer was considered to be the oldest settlement in the district. School texts chronicled settlement in the Zeyer village area as early as 1200; followed somewhat later by the village of Stuba.  Zeyersvorderkampen, which consisted of several islands in the Nogat delta, was settled much later, around 1730.  The town of Schlangenhaken was newest settlement in the district, it came into existence in 1929. Schlangenhaken was settled in the uncultivated areas of the Kampen Nogatmündung by order of the Danzig Senate.

Milk production was the key agricultural commodity produced in the district. Even during the war (WW2), a modern dairy under private ownership was located in Zeyer; while a cooperative dairy was located in Zeyersvorderkampen [Papatschen cooperative was partly owned by Richard Senger].
[see:

A third dairy, with offices in Stuba, was shut down during the war and merged with the dairy supplier in Zeyer.

In the commercial sector, there were four shops located in the village Zeyer including, grocery and hardware stores; one wind mill; a restaurant with bakery operations; a dry goods store selling clothing, footwear and dry goods. Additionally, there was a bakery and an inn (guest house).

Commercial enterprises in Zeyer included: a dairy, a butcher, a wheelwright, a blacksmith and two container manufacturers. The public sector in Zeyer included government buildings, two schools, two customs officers houses, a post office, a parsonage, and three village offices and a fire station.

The Zeyer Lutheran Church was located on the opposite bank of the Nogat in Elbing County.

On January 21, 1945, the first Russian tanks arrived unexpectedly in Elbing, just 8 km away. The population of the administrative district Zeyer received notification that night from the district office in Tiegenhof to immediately evacuate the area. Although the evacuation was prepared for in theory, it did not go according to the pre-arranged plan.  The original plan was to evacuate across the Vistula but because early that morning all the roads had become congested and overrun by the fleeing population, that evacuation plan was impossible. Additionally, the rural population found it very difficult to leave their farms. At the same time, the German Wehrmacht had hurriedly constructed a front along the Elbing River behind which people felt temporarily secure. Only the population of villages of Zeyer and Stuba fled towards Zeyersvorderkampern and Schlangenhaken.

During that same time, the entire livestock of the region had been driven off by Räumkommandos (Jeeps, personnel carriers) and grain reserves had been taken, as well. All that remained in the area were food stuffs capable of feeding the population for a short time.

The church came under artillery bombardment during the course of the fighting on February 3, 1945 as did the Zeyersvorderkampen dairy, three taverns, two dry goods stores, the forge and public buildings including: a school, five town buildings and the fire station.

Local horse stocks were taken over by the army. At the onset of battle, destruction of the buildings in Zeyer was limited to those on the edges of town. Initially only 3 properties were burned to the ground. However, very many buildings suffered heavy damage from artillery shelling and gun fire. But, the greatest destruction to the Zeyer area occurred after the area was occupied by Russians and Poles.

After the occupation, those who were left behind in the area no longer had any way to escape, since the Russians had already pushed through the province of Pomerania to the Baltic Sea.

On March 8, 1945, the German army was forced to retreat from its positions on the Nogat. The remaining civilian population was forced to withdraw to the Vistula Spit, where they were met by ships, mostly brought from Denmark. A small portion of the population in Zeyer could not bring themselves to leave their homes and awaited the arrival of the Russians. Most of those remaining people were working class families, the elderly as well as farming families [including Richard and Frieda Senger, ages 66 and 46 respectively.].

Based upon statements from a number of the survivors of the fall of Zeyer, those who were later expelled by the Poles, we know the following. After the arrival of the Russians in Zeyer on March 9, 1945, the entire remaining population was rounded up. All men between the ages of 16 and 60 were transported to the east [for incarceration in Soviet Gulags- concentration camps]. A number of the remaining survivors were held for questioning by the Soviets and ultimately tortured to death. Shortly after the arrival of the Russians in Zeyersvorderkampen the first murders began. The following were executed by the Russians for unknown reasons:

  • Farmer Franz Thiessen (7O years)
  • Farmer Adolf Block
  • Hulda Janzen and her daughter Klara Eichhorn with 1 year old son/ grandson
  • Mr. & Mrs. A. Mierau
  • 18-year-old Christine Wichert
  • Anna Braun of Zeyersvorderkampen
  • four-member family of farmer Fritz Dudenhöft
  • disappearing without a trace were Mr. & Mrs. Rathke Zvk

All women who remained were forced to be available for the pleasure of the Soviet troops, until the Soviet troops were withdrawn. [On the 17th of March 1945 Frieda Senger was indicted by the Soviets and assigned to forced labor camps- concentration camps. She was released in 1947. Between 1945 and 1947 Richard Senger was a forced laborer on what used to be his farm.]

What remained of the population of Zeyer was forced to go to Elbing to try and find food, as none was provided.

As the Russian troops withdrew and the first Poles moved in as an adventurous, unruly rabble. They looted houses of anything that remained from what the Russians had left behind. The Russians took all surviving animals and the best furniture. Agricultural implements and machinery were gathered by the Poles, bartered and taken away. The Vistula and Nogat dikes were breeched or blown up thereby flooding the entire countryside. The withdrawing Russians built bridges and walkways as needed from the materials remaining of destroyed homes and buildings. Under the management of the Poles, the devastation continued.  Buildings were abandoned due to lack of heating fuel or power; according to reports, many houses were also left without windows and doors.

The loss of life continued as many committed suicide. The remaining German population lived in Poland under the worst possible conditions; they received far too little food and were forced to do hard labor every day under severely abusive conditions.

Germans were outlawed. The new residents could do with them what they wanted. Under these brutal circumstances, the forced 1947 German expulsions were initiated. [This includes the same time frame during which 68 year-old Richard Senger began his walk on foot to West Germany. ]

Old, frail people; women with young children were forced to walk the 15 km [9 miles] [from Zeyer] to Tiegenhof in the freezing cold. In Tiegenhof, they were loaded into open rail cars bound for Marienburg; any baggage weighing more than 30 pounds was taken from them. From Marienburg, the journey continued to Halle in the eastern zone [Soviet Zone] of Germany where the deportees usually were force relocated. Numbers of deportees did not survive the hardships and died.

In the villages [Soviet style] collective farms were established because the Poles were not able to manage the farmlands privately.

The church came under artillery bombardment during the course of the fighting on February 3, 1945 as did the Zeyersvorderkampen dairy, three taverns, two dry goods stores, the forge and public buildings including: a school, five town buildings and the fire station.

Deutsche Mundarten- German Language

/ Europe Maps, Prussia / 3 Comments

The maps on this page indicate where various European German speaking peoples lived prior to the German Expulsions (Vertreibung) post-World War 2.

1937-Deutsche-Mundarten

Auf deutsch
* Beschreibung: Darstellungskarte der deutschen Mundarten im Jahre 1937. Daneben werden auch die Dialektgebiete in Holland und Belgien angeführt, die in der deutschen Sprachwissenschaft noch bis 1945 als Teil des deutschen Sprachgebietes galten. Diese Gebiete sind farblich blasser gestaltet.
* Zeichner: Postmann Michael
* Lizensstatus: Public domain

English:

* Green: Upper German
* Blue: Central German
* Orange: Low German
* Light orange: Dutch
* Rose (light and intense): Frisian
* Light blue: Limburgish

Description: Representation map of the German dialects in the year 1937. Mapmaker: Postmann Michael

The following map gallery illustrates the historical migration of Germans to the East as well as the pre-World War 1 location of other linguistic groups.

For some its Groundhog’s Day

/ Senger, Thoughts / , / 0 Comment

2 February is one of those days that adds a bit of winter fun to many Americans’ lives. For me though, it is something much more. It was 122 years ago today (2 February 2011) that my grandfather was born. As readers of this site will most likely know, he remains one of my life’s great influences. He is one of those loved people to whom much of my ManyRoads work is dedicated.

Richard Senger Photo Front Richard Senger was born on this day in 1879. He was born the third child of ten to Michael Senger and Adelgunde geboren Kiehl in Zeyersniederkampen, Westpreussen, Deutschland (a heimat -homeland- that is no more). He survived fighting in the trenches of World War 1 France, the occupation and removal of all his possessions by the allies after World War 2, the abduction and incarceration of his wife in Soviet Gulags. He was a stoic, thoughtful, hard-working man.

The second of February is to me, first and foremost, my Opa’s birthday.

Frohe Geburtstag, Opa.

Genealogy & Social Networking Technologies #5- RSS Feeds

/ Thoughts / 0 Comment

RSS Feeds are one of the most stable and long running social tools on the web. As might be expected it is one of the two I started using first and the one for which I had the highest expectations.

As luck would have it , RSS feeds have been largely a disappointment for me. RSS feeds have been around for probably longer than any of the tools in my little survey. For most folks, RSS seems to be both a very reliable and stable method of retransmitting blogs to broad ‘external’ audiences, using an information ‘push’ toolset; meaning I push (send) my content out to you the reader and onto your machine (obviously with your permission, but nonetheless I push).

To quote the ever famous Wikipedia:

RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

Like most people, I use feeds to syndicate my content. Which is to say every time I write a ManyRoads posting or page, like this one, off it goes into the ether AND anyone connected to my feed gets a copy. It is a great idea; and the folks a Google Feeds who push my content around probably thought so too, at one time. However, today I have 6 times fewer RSS feed readers than I do twitter followers. My RSS feed readers are numbered in the 10s not the hundreds.

Given those statistics I have to assume one of few items either my content is poorly suited to RSS or more folks rely on twitter to connect them to the content they seek. My sense is that my latter assumption is most likely the case.

In truth, I will keep using RSS, because it is easy to use; and, there are folks who seem to like it. But, I have to think that RSS’ days are numbered and that RSS is a medium in decline.

Genealogy & Social Networking Technologies #4- LinkedIn

/ Tips & Opinions / 0 Comment

Unlike facebook, LinkedIn has been moving in positive and useful directions. To be honest, I have had enough success with LinkedIn that I have begun to expand my efforts on that social networking platform.

By way of a quick overview, to-date I have attempted the following activities with good success on LinkedIn. I have:

  • added LinkedIn friends and now have more than 500. As I have increased my associates so has the ManyRoads traffic increased.
  • created a Genealogy Group (Genealogy Guild) which now has more than 100 participants. There is limited activity in the group and some amount of traffic from the group to ManyRoads has yielded additional, albeit limited, information, opportunities, and discourse.
  • linked my tweets to LinkedIn and this Twitter interface seems to have generated a small but steady flow of additional readers and traffic to ManyRoads.
  • made my credentials and CV available. They appear to be accessed on a regular (daily) basis, presumably this provides an additional degree of professional visibility. Although, I would note this type of inference is extremely difficult or prove- one way or the other.
  • most recently, added my company information on LinkedIn, using the Company- beta function. I have great hopes for this newer service. It is worth noting that there seem to be those typical beta software problems plaguing the company edit and modification functions.

Assessing my experiences to date on LinkedIn, I would characterize them as being mostly positive and trending in even more positive directions. In the interest of balance and fairness though, I would have to say that this path has not been fast nor necessarily obvious.

Genealogy & Social Networking Technologies #3- facebook

/ Tips & Opinions / 2 Comments

Probably one of the biggest social networking disappointments for me, thus far, has been facebook. I have tried three differing facebook approaches/ venues, none seems to have worked very effectively.

Firstly, I tried the plain vanilla regular facebook friending protocol. Basically by that I mean, I joined facebook, made lots of friends and almost none of them visit my genealogy site (or other sites for that matter). I had hoped that family and friends would been interested enough to follow along and communicate or use ManyRoads, but I have been largely disappointed. My single notable success has been finding and re-meeting a long lost cousin. She ultimately had a neighbor friend of hers translate my German Oma’s (grandmother’s) Soviet post-WW2 bills of indictment and incarceration in a Stalinist Gulag. Truly that was a significant accomplishment, but given I have been ‘active’ on facebook for more than two years, this experience has been largely disappointing.

The next major foray, I had into the facebook world, involved the creation of a ManyRoads facebook group. Aside from one member, one time, I believe I have been the entire compliment of writing and discussion. In the main, the experience feels a lot like being in an empty auditorium shouting to myself. The group looks nice but yields nothing. So goes my second sad facebook effort.

Lastly, I have tried syndicating, publicizing ManyRoads via Networked Blogs on facebook. Aide from using an unacceptable amount of website CPU cycles, that turned out to be a complete nothing. Setting things up took a fair bit of work and produced so little I was unable to measure its “minusculeness”. At one point, I even tweeted begging for any of my Twitter followers to ‘like’ my blog. I received one whole response. Granted this site is of limited interest and excitement but… there we have yet another facebook disappointment.

I guess I would conclude this brief discourse by summarizing my facebook experiences as having been a lot of effort producing very little in the way of tangible, traceable results. If facebook were to disappear today, I doubt either my genealogy efforts or the ManyRoads’ site traffic would suffer very much; they certainly don’t seem to have benefited excepting in the one instance.

I certainly hope you have had much better success.

New Translation function

/ Site, Tools / 0 Comment

A new web-page translation function has been added to ManyRoads. The Wibiya bar, where our translation function was previously provided, has been eliminated. We eliminated the bar based in large part on the recommendations and comments of Matt Mullenweg (the designer/inventor of WordPress).Globe

Additionally, you may have noticed that the performance of ManyRoads had begun to degrade significantly over the past weeks; we believe this was due in no small part to the performance of Wibiya as well as that of other plugins.  So given we would like things to move quickly, I cleaned things up a bit.  I rolled the site back to a few previously utilized plugins, like Sexy Bookmarks; and am hoping for the best, performance-wise.

Our new translation plugin (called the Google Ajax Plugin) seems quite light and fast.  It was however originally a tad austere from an appearance perspective.  I added a bit of color and hope that things are none the worse for my efforts. I, however, have noted one possible exception and that is you will need to Select English Translation to return to the base level system should you inadvertently select the Translate function.

I hope this plugin does a reasonable job of providing both translations and information access to ManyRoads’ non-native English readers.

8th Semi-irregular ManyRoads Newsletter

/ Site / , / 0 Comment

First, let me apologize for the delay in publishing the ManyRoads, semi-irregular Newsletter.  But as you might imagine, things here have been busy, hectic, and ‘interesting’.  Holidays, the end of the year plus some unanticipated technological & familial ‘adventures’ have all played their part in the delay.  Oh well….

From a genealogy perspective things have been interesting and fun. We managed to identify numerous “new to us” relations, friends, documentation, and histories. Our website traffic has continued to grow, although more slowly than before. I certainly also am appreciative of the many folks who have written us and also to those new subscribers of our Newsletter.

As you may have noticed, the past month included a fairly eclectic variety of postings and updates.  I am most pleased with the updates in our Verteibung, Elbing Damals Galleries as well as to our Prussian Addressbooks. We also managed to add several new maps and map pages to the site during December and January- all in the Prussian maps area.

Once again, numerous, very thoughtful and generous folks have sent us materials to share on the web. We greatly appreciate the ‘donations’ and will make them available as we are able. If you have photos, maps, stories that you think fit with our audience and subject matter, we’d love to hear from you.

Lastly, before I announce the list of last months publications, I would emphasize one posting above all: On the “Vertreibung”, Expulsions, and Hope . This posting came about due to popular demand.  I hope it helps explain my perspective and provides a clearer context for my efforts in that arena.

Finally the list! Here are other ManyRoads items of note published during the past month or so:

As always, I want to request any/all of you who have genealogical websites please consider reciprocal linking with ManyRoads. There is no cost and both your site and ManyRoads will benefit from the links. Simply place a link to http://many-roads.com on your site; send me an email letting me know you have made the link; and, I’ll place a link to your site.

Just knowing…

/ Thoughts / 2 Comments

Knowing our family origins brings a comfort that is hard to explain, but priceless to those seeking and finding.
I could not have said it better.

The above quote was one I received today in an email from one of my clients. I think the message is clear, succinct, and one which most of us who chase ancestors would heartily agree.

The words moved me. I thought perhaps they might move you as well.

Genealogy & Social Networking Technologies #2- Twitter

/ Tips & Opinions, Tools / 2 Comments

Surprisingly, Twitter has become an essential communication vehicle for me. And, no one is more surprised than I am. I never thought that I would become a Twitter user, much less become one of those people who rely on Twitter.

Initially,I thought that Twitter was both frivolous and oriented towards the younger folks. I guess that probably says something more about me becoming stodgy and old then it says anything useful about Twitter; but nonetheless one fine day, I gave it a whirl.  The rest is history.  Now, I use Twitter everyday I use the computer, which is to say almost everyday.

With Twitter’s 140 measly ‘allowable’ characters, I am able to announce what I am doing and discovering to the world, or at least to that little part of the world interested in #genealogy, #ahnenforschung, #history etc. And amazingly enough, you the ManyRoads reader who also uses Twitter comes by for a look-see.  People I never knew, or knew might be interested in mywork, stop by, share information or simply become stealth readers; by the way, that is approximately 99.98% of you (Yes, I am one of those guys who tracks statistics…).

Additionally, Twitter has provided me with avenues for sharing what I find, or more precisely what other ‘Twitterers’ find,  as you can see on our News! page. I am able to filter the news streams, build lists of people (other Twitterers) with whom I share common interests (see My ManyRoads List). I use (meaning read) their/your feeds then either for myself alone or for further sharing and aggregation.

I am able find new information from people and places around the globe covering topics such as:

  • #genealogy
  • #genealogists
  • #famhist
  • #ancestry
  • #familysearch
  • #familytree
  • #surnames
  • #historic
  • #antique
  • #ancient
  • #brickwall
  • #archives

In Twitter speak, words prefaced with # are called hash-tags (hastags). Truly they are nothing more than keywords, if you will, for sorting through the piles of streaming Tweets/ information, in order to see those topics in which I, and you if you use them, are interested.  I personally find the above hash-tags to be very good for finding meaningful genealogy information and articles. Additionally, I am able to use those very same hash-tags for generating information feeds to various software systems like paper.li and Gwibber, the social feed reader I use.

As you well know, both genealogy and genealogical research are reliant on finding hidden, not easy to locate, information. A communication tool like Twitter has become, in this arena, a real asset in finding information… previouly hidden and obscure, to me.  It is also a useful communication vehicle which facilitates meeting, talking, and connecting with like minded individuals- those people searching for information similar to that which I seek.

More to come…

Further Readings

Genealogy & Social Networking Technologies #1

/ Tips & Opinions, Tools / 0 Comment

Social networking (media) ought to be a useful adjunct to genealogy research. Or more complexly stated, genealogy and genealogists should benefit greatly through improved interpersonal, Internet communications technology (better known as social networking).  Of late, I have been trying to employ a number of web oriented ‘social’ technologies in an effort to up ManyRoads site readership and traffic.

It probably bears stating, the reason I (and most genealogy bloggers) seek higher traffic is because I both appreciate and need the contact/ interaction in my genealogy searches/ efforts.  By that I mean, you (our reader) have knowledge and information that might help me in my search(es), just as I have information that might help you in yours.  Yes in addition to my personal efforts I, also, do genealogy work for fee; but as anyone who has been on ManyRoads very often knows, I provide a lot of information, images and documents for free and without strings.  And, much of that information has been sourced through your good communications to me.

To place the success of my efforts, thus far,  in a tangible context, I would share the following.  Out of the 160,000 +/- page reads, 65,000 visitors we have had during the past year I have made contact with approximately:

  • 10 new “to me” cousins
  • a few new clients
  • 10 GB of new information (all stored here on ManyRoads for everyones’ use)
  • numerous valuable and detailed assists in the editing my genealogy work
  • dozens of photos of family members that I did not know existed
  • numerous unbelievable and useful links to previously lost aspects of my family’s past

Well you get the idea.  It takes a lot of traffic to keep and create a good information flow; and, such is the context within which the communication technologies I am about to discuss operate.  Each medium attempts, in one way or another, to reach out into areas and places in the hope/ desire of triggering mutual information sharing and communication. The most significant aspect of this ‘reaching out’ is that it is almost blind. It’s a bit like putting your arm under a rug and reaching, rummaging, searching for a lost pebble.  You do not know the shape, the location, texture, or size of the pebble, nor can you see it.  You simply know it might be there and you want to find it. So, you reach.

In subsequent articles (posts) I will discuss my efforts with the following social technologies:

  • facebook
  • linkedin
  • networkedblogs
  • twitter
  • yahoo groups
  • rss feeds

By the way, I doubt there will be single, dedicated posts for each item on the above list.

If there are technologies you want to hear about, but they are not on my little list, please let me know.  I may have tried them and would be happy to share what I have learned; if not, perhaps I should try them and then share what I learn.  More to come…

Further Readings

Papatschen Käserei (Meierei)

/ Kreis Elbing, Senger / , / 0 Comment

In Zeyervorderkampen during and before World War 2, there was a small Käserei (Meierei) Dairy that was owned, all or in part, by Richard Senger.

Based upon maps and analysis of the region (today Kepiny Male) by Rainer Glodde-Mueller during his 2010 journey to the area, it is believed that the following photos are what remains of that past business.  Obviously the buildings had been worked on in the early 1950s (see the photo with the dated stone near the roof peak).

Discussions with Luise Senger Rabideau (Richard’s daughter) were not definitive in identifying these buildings positively. A mystery remains. Are these, or are they not, the buildings that once housed the Papatschen Käserei (Meierei)…

Any information would be most appreciated.

Polish courtesy of Google Translate:
W Zeyervorderkampen w trakcie i przed 2 wojny światowej, była mała Käserei (Meierei) mleczarskich, które było własnościąwszystkich lub części, Richarda Senger.

Na podstawie mapy i analiza regionu (dziś Kępiny Male) RaineraGlodde-Mueller podczas jego podróży do 2010 na obszarze, uważa się, że poniższe zdjęcia są co pozostaje, że w przeszłościfirmy. Oczywiście budynków została opracowana w na początku 1950 (na zdjęciu z dnia kamień w pobliżu szczytu dachu).

Rozmowy z Luise Senger Rabideau (córka Ryszarda) nie byłyostateczne w identyfikacji tych budynków pozytywnie. Tajemnicapozostaje. Czy te, lub nie są one, budynki, które kiedyśznajdowały się Papatschen Käserei (Meierei) …

Wszelkie informacje będą najbardziej mile widziane.

Further readings:

Senger Family Lands & Possesions

Deutsche Musik mit Humor (sampler #2)

/ Videos, WW1, WW2 / 1 Comment

The songs on this page are from the early 20th Century Germany (pre-World War 2) and have intriguing titles!

Mein Papagei frisst keine harten Eier (My parrot does not eat hard boiled eggs)

Ich fahr mit meiner Klara in die Sahara (I drive with my Clara through the Sahara)

Tante Paula liegt im Bett und ißt Tomaten (Aunt Paula lays in bed eating tomatoes)

Wer hat bloß den Käse zum Bahnhof gerollt (1927) (Who rolled the cheese to the train station)

Die schönsten Beine von Berlin (The prettiest legs from Berlin)

I’ll add more insightful songs as I find them!

Related:

  • Alte Kriegslieder
  • Deutsche Musik (Sampler)

    • 2010 Top Ten

    / ManyRoads, Thoughts / , , , , , , , , , / 0 Comment

    Hmm… the top 10 genealogy items for ManyRoads this year are…

    I wish I could say this list was complete, but it isn’t. But in the spirit of celebration, here’s my list: 

    10. Being invited to speak on genealogy at two locales during the year (Public speaking).
    9. Accumulating copies of the Zeyer ev. Kirche records at the LDS Family History Center in Parker (Zeyer ev. Kirche Documents ).
    8. Breaking the Deyo family brickwall (male line- Deyo-Deo-Dion-Guyon! ).
    7. Creation of the ManyRoads Libraries (Libraries).
    6. Creation of our Vertreibung Libraries and Galleries (Expulsion – Vertreibung).
    5. Discovery of the imprisonment of Henss family ancestor Robert Owen by the British and Robert’s invitation to move the  New World by William Penn (Robert & Jane (Vaughan) Owen- 1684 ).
    4. Building my wife’s maternal family line from scratch.
    3. Identifying the graves of two uncles who died fighting for their country in WW1 (Adolf Senger - Albert Senger ).
    2. Obtaining a copy from the DRK Suchdienst for my grandmother’s incarceration in Soviet Gulags following World War 2 (Frieda Senger -Suchdienst & Soviet Records ).
    1. Finding the birth records of my ‘Senger’ grandparents and great grandparents!(Frieda Senger Birth Record, Zeyer ev. Kirche Documents,  Adelgunde Wilhelmine Senger geb. Kiehl is found!).

    Other significant personal events of 2010 included:

    Recipes

    / Help Wanted, Thoughts / 1 Comment

    Does anyone have access to West and East Prussian German recipes? I would like to gather a collection of food recipes that were local to the Germans who once populated the region of Europe between Danzig Marienburg, and Koenigsberg.Koenigsbergerklopse

    Please contact me directly with any recipes or food names that you might have/ remember. I will eventually place everything I gather in a database here for all to see, read and copy. I suspect that might take a while and that assumes, of course, I obtain any recipes at all. But given it is the holiday season, and this is the time for foods, I thought I’d ask!

    Happy holidays and enjoy your Koenigsberger Klops!

    ….mark

    ManyRoads Sentinel

    / Services, Tools / 0 Comment

    Genealogy is a twitter (a bad pun, I know).

    We have created our first twitter based online Newspaper (using paper.li). newsThe ManyRoads Sentinel is now accessible via our new News! link on the top banner of ManyRoads. I hope you find the articles and news items both informative and useful. As time progresses, I will be tweaking the newspaper in an effort to achieve an optimal balance of items and news.

    If you follow certain folks on twitter who you believe ought to be included in our paper, please let me know. In the meantime, please be advised that our paper is updated as both morning & evening editions. You may subscribe directly to the journal from the ManyRoads Sentinel page.

    Enjoy!
    …mark

    On the “Vertreibung”, Expulsions, and Hope

    / Expulsion - Vertriebenen, ManyRoads, Tips & Opinions / 4 Comments

    Of late, I have received numerous queries and comments from our readership regarding my position on and interest in the ethnic expulsions of German peoples from Eastern Europe after World War 2. I think this is a fair question that merits response.

    I guess I would begin my response by stating that expulsions and holocausts (genocides) did not start nor end with the Germans of 1930-1940s Europe.

    From a historical context some of the earliest genocides were (according to Wikipedia):

    • the destruction of Melos by Athens during the Peloponnesian War (fifth century BCE)
    • the genocides of Amalekites and Midianites (described in the old Testament).
    • the Yu Ding (禹鼎) records that Liwang of Zhou (d. 828 BC) ordered his army not to leave old and young of a rebel country alive.
    • the destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War (149–146 BC) “The First Genocide”.

    Expulsions and ‘holocausts’ continue today and have been conducted with vigor for millennia.

    In World War 2 alone there were at least four major ‘genocides/holocausts’ conducted against non-combatant civilian populations of:

    • Jews (up to 6 million),
    • Chinese (up to 16 million)
    • Germans (up to 3 million)
    • Polish (up to 2.5 million)

    Other less easily classified WW2 ‘genocides/ mass murders/ displacements’ were conducted against the Soviet controlled peoples (Russians, Latvians, ethnic Germans, etc.), American Japanese, Indians, Indochinese, Indonesians, European gypsies, and homosexuals.  Since World War 2, there have been numerous additional ‘holocausts’, including those against Cambodians, Bosnians, Rwandans, Sudanese…

    The extreme sadness is that each event is inexcusable and more sadly, few are even remembered or acknowledged. Historically, governments and peoples continually attempt to rationalize and justify their genocidal crimes in the context of some prior crime, either real or imagined, that was perpetrated upon ‘them’ previously by the ‘other’. The cycle simply never ends. There is no first crime, there is no last retaliation. It is simply a vicious hate based spiral/ cycle. In human terms, the cycle is nearly infinite in duration and scope. As someone once said: “An Eye For An Eye Makes The Whole World Blind”.

    So why do I bother to tell and document the Vertreibung story? I tell the story of the German Expulsions because my family was very fortunate to have survived the pogroms, murders, concentration camps, loss of property, etc. and because the Vertreibung bears telling. The Vertreibung was the largest ethic cleansing in history, involving the displacement of as many as 14 million people; the crimes against humanity in this event are immense and almost always ignored- especially by those most closely involved in their sanction and conduct. People need to be informed. The acts should be remembered in the hope that they will not be repeated. Most importantly, governmental or social ‘retribution’ meted out during the Vertreibung needs to be unconditionally viewed as inexcusable, unacceptable by anyone, anywhere. Crimes, genocides, expulsions such as these are unpardonable, even when they are conducted against a people who had the great misfortune of being associated with a hated and abjectly defeated government.

    Our family, your family, every family has been wronged at one time or another. We have all, almost certainly, been associated with losing wars, being on the wrong side of an issue, and being expelled from homes and lands we thought were ours. Our families have been wrongly incarcerated and punished by people who believed they were superior to us. We have been punished for our language, our color, our intellect, our beliefs and more. No family is immune.

    Fortunately each of us has a choice. We can choose to perpetuate, hide, ignore or excuse these events; or we can attempt to stop their continuance and recognize them for what they are: crimes against humanity.

    I choose to tell the tale, and I refuse to continue the cycle. The Vertreibung, like many other expulsion/ genocides, needs to be viewed in the light of day. We need to examine it, evaluate it, and our reactions to it. We need to move forward by forgiving ourselves and others. In forgiving others, we free ourselves. In asking for forgiveness, we earn the right to be forgiven.

    So, during this annual season of remembrance, love, peace, and forgiveness, I extend my fervent wish for broader understanding, acceptance, and tolerance. I hope you will join me in working for a world where we all can see and appreciate our shared humanity. A world where reconciliation is possible and we can forgive one another for our collective transgressions, while still valuing the sacrifices each of our families have made.

    Related Materials

    Adelgunde Wilhelmine Senger geb. Kiehl is found!

    / Senger / , , / 4 Comments

    After searching for more than 70 years for documentary evidence, on 11 December 2010, we finally viewed the image of the birth record of Adelgunde Wilhelmine Senger geboren (born) Kiehl (my great-grandmother- “O-oma“). It was one of those ‘hoped for’ breakthrough findings. Earlier we had uncovered evidence on FamilySearch saying that her birth record was in fact located in Graudenz Mittelbezirk Westpreussen. Just about 6 weeks ago, we ordered the microfilm and sure enough, there it was. We now have the film on permanent hold in our local family history center in Parker.

    Her birth was on the 6th of October 1850. Her father was Erdmann Kiehl and her mother was Esther Adelgunde Grindemann. There is additional information on the record we need yet to assess, including the name of her birth town (not very easy to read on the photo we currently have). We also hope to find evidence of her parents births, ideally in the same church/ area.
    Adelgunde Senger geb. Kiehl Birth-1850-1 Adelgunde Senger geb. Kiehl Birth-1850-2

    Related Postings

    Seventh Semi-irregular ManyRoads Newsletter

    / ManyRoads, Site / 0 Comment

    Happy Holidays! As we are now in the midst of the largest annual holiday season, I think it is time for me to quickly write and publish our monthly News Letter. As always, it is on our extraordinarily accurate, semi-irregular schedule.

    The past month has been quite busy for me both from a genealogy/ ManyRoads website perspective as well as otherwise.  It seems like I have been everywhere but home for most of the past month.  Now with the holiday season, we ( Becky and I ) are busy with things in the family and otherwise, as I am certain everyone is at this time of the year.

    This past month, I have been attempting to gather and publish a significant body of video and musical data; some materials were generated according to plan others came by circumstance and luck.  The material has ranged from the sublime into perhaps even the frivolous.  Hopefully, the materials help paint a somewhat clearer image of a small piece of the past, not to mention my personal feelings about the past. I sincerely hope most of you have found the materials informative, even if they have not been entirely enjoyable.

    A number of very thoughtful and generous folks have sent us materials to share on the web during the last month. We greatly appreciate the ‘donations’ and will make them available as we are able. I would note that some of the items are not necessarily easy to upload and share. We are currently in process of receiving numerous “new to ManyRoads” pre-world war 2 address books from the former Eastern German provinces.  We are very excited about these and will get them online as soon as we can.

    Happily, our visitor numbers continue to grow and we are now averaging around 240 visitors per day!  Last month we again topped 7000 visitors.  We even briefly ranked in the top 25 of all genealogy websites tracked by genealogy.org.

    Finally the list! Here are the ManyRoads items published during the past month or so:

    As always, I want to request any/all of you who have genealogical websites please consider reciprocal linking with ManyRoads. There is no cost and both your site and ManyRoads will benefit from the links. Simply place a link to http://many-roads.com on your site; send me an email letting me know you have made the link; and, I’ll place a link to your site.

    And last but not least: a very Merry Christmas/ Frohe Weihnachtsfest to all our Christian readers! and a Happy Holiday season to all!

    Sudeten Vertreibung- Sudeten German Expulsion

    / Expulsion - Vertriebenen, Videos / 3 Comments

    “Töten auf Tschechisch”[SinglePic not found]

    Zwei Tage nach Kriegsende treiben tschechische Milizen deutsche Bewohner Prags mit brutaler Gewalt aus der Stadt. Es ist der Beginn der Vertreibung fast aller Deutschen aus der Tschechoslowakei.

    Mehr Information von diesem ZDF Film.  Hintergrunde and der DVD.

    This film details the history surrounding the expulsion of Germans from Prague, the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia.  Both the NSDAP actions and crimes preceding the expulsion and the brutality with which the ultimate German expulsion were conducted by the Czech people and government after the war are detailed.

    More Information on the Film.   Background on the DVD.

    Genealogy & The Rule of Six

    / Tips & Opinions / 0 Comment

    Genealogical research is an uncovering of truths as they apply to your life, others’ lives, the past and the future. Genealogy-IdeasThere never truly is a single answer to what happened, how it came to be, and what was best or worst. The options and answers are often many, complex and perhaps even indeterminate. Inter-dependencies, inter-relationships abound. However, applying the rule of six can be a useful tool in helping you attain insights into the past you might otherwise miss.

    What follows is a brief description of the Rule of Six by Paula Underwood Spencer:

    One of the attitudes taught in my [Oneida] tradition is the Rule of Six. The Rule of Six says that for each apparent phenomenon, devise at least six plausible explanations, every one of which can indeed explain the phenomenon. There are probably sixty, but if you devise six, this will sensitize you to how many there may yet be and prevent you from locking in on the first thing that sounds right as The Truth.

    But your task isn’t over yet. Because you can’t just float on a multiple option basis. Now your task is to apply your life experience, which is unique to yourself, and use it as a base to evaluate each of those options. Now you assign a probability factor. That probability factor can never be 100% . . . and absolutely never zero.

    You keep a floating attitude toward life, but you constantly know where you are in that context. [...]

    A Native American Worldview by Paula Underwood Spencer, Noetic Sciences Review, Summer 1990

    If you are courageous and flexible enough to follow Paula’s advice, you will learn more than you can ever imagine about your past, your family, and perhaps even a little bit about how things became as they are…

    Deutsche Musik (Sampler)

    / Videos, WW1, WW2 / 1 Comment

    Popular German Music – Deutsche Musik.

    We are building this sampler collection and hope to add more music as we find it. It is our plan to add tunes from the 1920′s, 30′s, and 40′s. Over the longer term, we hope to build a similar collection for US tunes as well.

    Related:

    Newly added 28 Dec 2010:

    Erhard Bauschke: Bei mir ist nicht mehr viel zu holen (1938)

    Wiener Fiakerlied (1932)

    Ich bin verrückt nach Hilde (RUSI R 3034a), 1929

    Humoresk Melodios: Das macht der Fridolin mit einer Hand (1934)

    Previously added Music:

    Das gibts nur einmal, das kommt nicht wieder- Odeon-Tanz-Orchester

    Bei mir bist du schön- Zarah Leander (1938)

    “Lilli Marleen” by Lale Andersen (1939)

    Das ist Berlin! by Ilse Werner

    J’attendrai (Komm zurück) in Berlin, 1939

    Es geht alles vorüber, es geht alles vorbei- Lale Andersen (1942)

    Hallo! Du süße Frau- Bernard Ette Orchester- 1930

    Kriegsweihnacht- War Christmas

    / Videos, WW2 / 0 Comment

    I have attempted to present videos offering the music and feeling of WW2 Christmases in Germany. It is, as you might imagine, very difficult to find films that are not extremely propaganda oriented. Those presented here are more oriented to the music and mood of the time and less towards the propaganda, which is what I seek to portray here. If you know of films and music that are available for use, please let me know where to locate them and I will add them.
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