Researching Mennonite Regions of Damals Preußen (former Prussia)

For those who research the Mennonite areas of what was once Westpreußen (West Prussia) and Ostpreußen (East Prussia), you know it can be very frustrating. For numerous years I have performed these searches in what can be best described as:

the best way I knew how!

Recently due to a client opportunity, I decided to establish a more thorough, exhaustive, and rigorous approach to conducting my Mennonite research. Do not confuse this approach with being easy, simple, or highly automated. It is, rather, much more disciplined and focused.

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To begin with, I use three major Genealogical Resources for obtaining Mennonite source material(s). I have listed them below in order of my preference. My preference is largely based on which offer the most readable, clean, original source documentation. I have found that transcribed information is often inaccurate or incomplete and thus emphasize the identification of original source materials rather than secondary materials.

Primary Research Materials

1. Archion (non-free)
   • Their records are generally beautifully photographed.
   • Archion offers a most complete setup of Eastern German Mennonite materials.
   • Be prepared to READ EVERY record, they are NOT digitally searchable..
   • For Mennonites in non-Mennonite Church record sources are often labeled Sonstiges (which means other or misc.)
2. GrandMa Online (non-free)
   • GRanDMA contains genealogical information on Mennonite and Hutterite individuals, most of whose ancestral lines can be traced to Mennonite and Hutterite communities in Prussia (now Poland) and South Russia (now Ukraine).
   • Their data and information is all vetted.
   • They provide numerous data mining tools.
   • Moving data from their software to your own tree is a “pretty labor intensive” effort.
3. FamilySearch (free)
   • I have discovered numerous transcription errors.
   • FamilySearch frequently provides decent albeit rough ‘digital searching’ facilities. Do NOT assume these search results are either completely accurate or thorough.
   • Digitally sourced information does not ALWAYS provide usable links to source information. This can cause considerable difficulty and confusion.
   • Group trees are inherently inaccurate.
4. Mennonitica – archival material from and about Mennonites (free)
   • This may be the most COMPLETE set of available records.
   • Eastern Prussian provinces and Poland (part)
     (formerly part of Prussia; Mennonites predominantly of Dutch descent)
   • Galicia and Poland (part)
     (formerly part of Austria; Mennonites mainly of Swiss descent)
   • Their records are multiply imaged but not digitally searchable.
   • Be prepared to READ EVERY record.
5. Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths in the Danzig Church 1665-1943
   Family Books 1 and 2 of the Danzig Mennonite Church-Transliterated and Digitized by Ernest H. Baergen
6. Ancestry.com (non-free)
   • The source images, when provided, are of the poorest image quality.
   • Digital results frequently point to records on FamilSyearch, which may or may not be available or correctly ‘keyed’.
   • Group trees are, also, inherently inaccurate.
   • Image hints are almost always worthless.
   • Birth, Marriage, Death suggestions are nearly 100% useless (they almost always are dominated by suggestions that are out of time period and/or location).

Supporting Research Materials

Support websites used (to gain insights into locations, distances between churches, and potential ecclesiastical search locations). These are also listed in my order of preference.

1. Meyers Gazetteer
   • Meyers is the most important of all German gazetteers. The goal of the Meyer’s compilers was to list every place name in the German Empire (1871-1918). It gives the location, i.e. the state and other jurisdictions, where the civil registry office was and parishes if that town had them. It also gives lots of other information about each place.
   • The only drawback to Meyer’s is that if a town did not have a parish, it does not tell where the parish was, making reference to other works necessary.
2. Kartenmeister
   • Kartenmeister offers the most comprehensive database of its kind in the world. It contains 108600 locations with over 45.115 name changes once, and 5,500 twice and more.
   • All locations are EAST of the Oder and Neisse rivers and are based on the borders of the eastern provinces in Spring 1918.
3. Mennonite Genealogical Resources
   • This site offers soup to nuts data links.
   • This is an excellent place to acquaint yourself with all Mennonite regions.
   • Available material has often been transcribed, typed, and is available in pdf formats. (Much is digitally searchable.)
   • Much of the original source material is less accessible than that offered in several of the above sites including archion.de & Mennonitica .
4. For a more exhaustive set of resources see:
   • Additional resources provided on ManyRoads for Mennonite/ Amish research support.

Where to Hunt

Because I spend a ‘fair amount of time researching my maternal “Heimatland” for myself and my client work, I have developed an almost certainly, very nearly complete list of places within three former Eastern German Kreisen (counties) to research.  The Kreisen included are Elbing, Marienburg, and Riesenburg, as well as the Mennonite areas around Königsberg.  In order to research Mennonites from these regions, you will need to research all Mennonite Gemeinden (Community) records, as well as Evangelischen Church materials (because Mennonite records may appear in one or both locations).

Kreis Marienburg, Reisenberg, Königsberg & Elbing (Mennonite & evangelische Churches)

1. Altfelde
2. Altmünsterberg
3. Baarenhof
4. Barendt
5. Danzig
6. Elbing
7. Elbing-Ellerwald
8. Elbing, St. Annen > Sonstige Verzeichnisse
9. Elbing, St. Marien > Sonstige Verzeichnisse
10. Fischau
11. Fürstenau
12. Fürstenwerder
13. Gnojau
14. Gross Lesewitz
15. Gross Lichtenau
16. Groß Mausdorf
17. Gross Rohdau
18. Heubuden
19. Jungfer
20. Katznase
21. Königsberg
22. Kunzendorf
23. Ladekopp
24. Lemberg
25. Liessau
26. Lindenau
27. Marienau
28. Marienburg
29. Mennoniten Gemeinde Elbing
30. Montau
31. Neukirch und Prangenau
32. Neuheide
33. Neuteich
34. Neuteich, Landgemeinde
35. Neuteich, Mennoniten
36. Neuteich, Stadtgemeinde
37. Neuwied
38. Orlofferfelde
39. Palschau
40. Petershagen
41. Plauschwarren
42. Pomehrendorf
43. Preußisch Mark
44. Reisenberg
45. Riesenburg, 1. Pfarrstelle
46. Riesenburg, 2. Pfarrstelle
47. Riesenburg, 2. Pfarrstelle Land
48. Riesenburg, 2. Pfarrstelle Stadt
49. Rosenort
50. Schadwalde
51. Schöneberg an der Weichsel
52. Schönsee
53. Stalle
54. Stalle, Stuhmer Kreis
55. Tannsee
56. Tannsee und Lindenau
57. Thiensdorf
58. Thiensdorf-Marcushof
59. Tiegenhagen
60. Tiegenhof
61. Tiegenort
62. Tragheimerweide
63. Trunz
64. Weierhof
65. Wernersdorf
66. Westpreußisches Geimeinde
67. Zeyer
68. Zweibrücken

If you would like to see additional material added to this tutorial or if you find errors/omissions, please use our contact page to let me know.