my German ancestors came from the area of Plock in central Poland. today it's a pretty big town on the north bank of the Vistula river, 60 miles east of Warsaw. there is also a "Plonsk" just a few miles east of Plock. you have to be a little careful here, because the county that Plock is in, is also named Plock. it was very near the boundary between the provinces of South Prussia and short-lived New East Prussia during the 2nd partition of Poland in 1792, then was within the boundaries of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw when Napoleon came thru in 1805, then it became part of Congress Russia in 1815 after Napoleon was defeated. our ancestors lived in interesting times! there were many ethnic Germans living in this whole region of Poland, along the river, from Thorn to Warsaw. you'll need to figure out how your German surnames translate into Polish, and vice versa, when searching this area. for example, my own Knopf line translates to Guzowski in Polish, as Knopf is the German word for "button" and Guzowski is a form of the Polish word for "button". in fact, some of the records i've found list my ancestors' last name written out as "Knopf vel Guzowski", or Knopf alias Guzowski, which simply means that they used both forms of their last name in their affairs. some families started out German Prussian, with each new generation moving a little farther upstream and becoming a little more Polish. so it's often helpful to know both forms and to use both in your searches. if you end up looking in the 1800s along the Vistula river for your German relatives, sggee.org and upstreamvistula.org are good places to start looking for which parishes were nearby. if you're looking in the 1900s, you should be aware that many Germans living in this area were whisked away & resettled in the Volga region (Saratov) of Russia during world war I. some died there, others returned to Poland after the war, and some remained in Russia. the site at ahsgr.org might be helpful in this case. if you find your searches taking you to Poland more often, rootsweb has an active Poland Roots group as well. chris On 10/12/2011 2:42 PM, Deborah Frontczak wrote: > Yes, I assumed they were German names also, altho all my ancestors so far have listed Polish as their mother tongue. My one grandma, descended from the Fuerst/Wrosch line, was Kashub and remembered some Kashub nursery rhymes. And once I saw Wrosch spelled Wrosz!! :) > > Płock is directly east of Poznan, almost to Warsaw, south of Gdansk. You're right, it's hard to tell from maps, but it looks like it may have been right on the border of Pommerania and Russia around the turn of the century (1900). > > Thanks for checking my names against yours! and I appreciate the encouragement! > > > Deborah Frontczak > _____________________________________________________ > Researching Genealogy (Detroit, MI and Poland) for: > Frontczak, Owczarek, Fuerst, Wrosch, Langa, Endert, > Stefanski, Mrozowski, Sobieski, Tomaszewski, Kowalski, > Ksiazkiewicz, Bukowski.

Chris, Could you recommend a good history that would detail the influx of Germans that had settled in Northern Poland by 1775? My Weiss and Wedelstaet ancestors had settled in the area of Koscierznya (then known as Berent). Thank you, Frank Weihs

I'm looking for a biography or history of immigrants traveling from Prussia to the U.S. in English. Does anyone know of any On 10/12/11, Frank Weihs wrote: > Chris, > Could you recommend a good history that would detail the influx of Germans > that had settled in Northern Poland by 1775? My Weiss and Wedelstaet > ancestors had settled in the area of Koscierznya (then known as Berent). > Thank you, > Frank Weihs > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PRUSSIA-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- Lorene Seman, MBA Assistant Administrator, Department of Anesthesiology School of Medicine and Public Health University of Wisconsin 600 Highland Ave, B6/319 CSC Madison, WI 53792-3272 Voice: (608)-265-0588 FAX: (608)-263-8111