Hi Wendy, For now I should like to focus on just one tiny part of your post - William vs Gotlib (if that's the spelling it looks almost Polish compared with the more usual Gottlieb in Germany/Prussia), and maybe give some links re locations and borders. The gentleman in question may have any number of names - should you get to his birth certificate you may find he is really Johann Wilhelm Gottlieb Friedrich RADTKE or something equally lengthy. He may have used any of these names at various times. However it is also possible there could be a clerical error (or more) along the way. The further removed in time the records you are looking at (originals or transcriptions?) from this man's life, the more likely it is to find incorrect information given. For now I would record the earliest name you find in records for him, making a note that he has also been found as x, y and z. Eventually all will hopefully become clear but for now you will need to keep an open mind. One of my ancestors married as Sophia THOMS and is buried (in Australia) as Dora nee JOHNS. Her (Prussian) birth entry gives her name as Henrietta Sophia Dorothea THOMS. What has happened is now obvious!! Apologies if you have already exhauseted these sites to find your locations. http://www.jewishgen.org/communities/loctown.asp Here you can enter the coordinates of one place you think is most likely to be correct and work out distances away of other locations. This is especially helpful if you expect a couple to have known each other in Europe before they married. Soundex is used so you may overcome misspellings. Exact spellings are needed here: http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=1074&offerid=0%3a7858%3a0 It's free, and I think it is great :)) I still need some of these to assist however... http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/RG/images/GER_T4_-_HowtoUsetheMeyersGazetteer.pdf https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/ABBREVIATION_TABLE_FOR_MEYERS https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Germany_Gazetteers If your location falls into the following: "All locations are EAST of the Oder and Neisse rivers and are based on the borders of the eastern provinces in Spring 1918. Included in this database are the following provinces: Eastprussia, including Memel, Westprussia, Brandenburg, Posen, Pomerania, and Silesia" then valuable information about parishes,, name changes and others researching the same area can be found at: http://www.kartenmeister.com/preview/databaseuwe.asp European border changes can seem exceedingly confusing to those who have not grown up with them. Wikipedia can give good histories for places like East Prussia etc. Another excellent site for central European border changes is: http://www.polishroots.org/genpoland/polhistory.htm I hope I have given you some new ideas here. Do please report progress or problems, and keep asking questions! Good luck :)) Bronwyn. On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 8:10 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello, > I'm hoping somebody on the list can help me make sense of some information > recorded on a number of US documents for my gg-grandmother, Henriette > Fredericka Radtke and my gg-grandfather, Johann Michael Wagner. I thought I > had a good understanding of where to look for sacramental or other family > records for Henriette & Michael. Now, I'm totally confused. > > Census data records Henriette's place of birth as Prussia. The passenger > list information records her last residence as Hipstead (1891). Is that in > Prussia? Her port of departure is recorded as Bremen, Germany & Southampton, > England. > > Information from her husband's naturalization papers record her place of > birth as Litchtenfeld, Germany (b. 4 Feb 1866) while her death certificate > indicates her place of birth is Eicholtz, Germany. (d. 25 Mar 1938). Her > husband, Michael Wagner, is the respondent for both the naturalization > papers & death certificate. > > Another inconsistency in Henriette's records relates to the name of her > father. Her marriage certificate records his name as William Radtke & her > death certificate records his name as Gotlib Radtke. Does anybody have any > idea about the 2 different names for the same person? > > The last question I have relates to Johann Michael Wagner. Michael's census > records have consistently shown his place of birth as Bayren...either Winkel > or Winkl according to naturalization papers & death memorial card (b. 31 Mar > 1864; d. 1 Sept 1942). > > But, his passenger list information records him as being a citizen of > Miesh, Prussia in 1891. I would appreciate any ideas about these > inconsistencies as well. Would he have had to change his citizenship from > one country to the other? > > I am certain I have the correct passenger list record for Michael. He > departed from the same port, Hamburg and is on the same ship as the > Sonnenstuhl family, which migrated with the Wagners across the country to SD > and then to ND. The 2 families lived only miles apart since around 1892. > > I understand that the political boundaries changed throughout Germany's > history. I would really appreciate any information relating to these > locations or resources that would give me a better understanding of the > boundary changes. I would also appreciate any information why someone named > William on one document would be called Gotlib on another. > > A big thank you in advance for all who give their time and consideration > for any responses. Wendy > >