Joan Hawkins wrote: > We have been researching the old Saxon Duchies also and did find the ancestor > we were looking for--Johan Heinrich Wilhelm Siegfried, from Mehrstadt in > Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. I think you mean Mehrstedt. > What made this more interesting was that Mehrstadt > and its neighboring city Schlothiem were part of Rudolstadt although they > were located quite close to Sonderhausen and all of the surrounding villages > were in the Sonderhausen section. The Thuringian states were no compact territories, but systems of mainlands, exclaves and enclaves. It's all very easy to understand - if you have good maps. > We were lucky and found a death record in > Rudolstadt that indicated his home town, parents and birthdate. Wonderful, congratulations. > We would like to know a bit more about the Duchy of Schwarzburg. Very little > is written about it. Was the allegiance to one particular section of Schw. > very important. How did they get so mixed up. > Could someone shed some light on the history of these Duchies. Thank you > Joan Hawkins, Clearwater Fl. I dont't know any sources in English language. But America has the best written specialized literature in the world, perhaps anyone here in the list will know a good book. Another list member, Andre Schmidt from Leipzig some weeks ago wrote a mail about the historical geography of Thuringia: ---------------------------------------------->8 snip ------------------- There where different regions under the rule of the kings of Saxony. In the 16th century this where splitted to the two sons of the king. One of them become again the king of Saxony (in the Kingdom of Saxony, the todays Bundesland Sachsen), the other got regions in Thuringia. This thuringian area was later splittet again and again and again ... To name this splits they become the name Sachsen-xy, as Sachsen-Coburg, Sachsen-Gotha, Sachsen-Altenburg ... After marriage for instance, regions also "reunite" to - for instance Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. (A Duchestry). So if you look for the Kingdom of Saxony look at "Sachsen", for the others at "Thueringen". Note: There is also a Sachsen-Anhalt (Former "Prussian Province of Saxony" - After 1560 seperated from Saxony) and Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) what has exept the name nothing to do with Saxony. (Stop! Wrong! Parts of Lower Saxony - Friesland - where given to the King of Saxony by the German Emporer after the 30-years-war to pay him hes expenses. But after 3 years the King of Saxony sold Friesland ...) Andre Schmidt andre@informatik.uni-leipzig.de ---------------------------------------------->8 snap ------------------- * Dieter