I will tell you how I found my great grandparents as they were the first generation in my family to come to the US. On my great grandfather I went to the area where they settled which was Clayton County, IA. I talked to people in the area and was told many Germans who settle there came from Eldena, Mecklenburg, Germany. That was my first hint. Join the Rootsweb list for the area they settled in. You would be surprised how much people know even today. On my great grandmother it was much more difficult. Both had very common surnames so I was not confident I was ever going to find them. My ggrandfather was Meyer and my ggrandmother was Wille. I began looking in Castle Gardens and Ellis Island for their immigration records and found them in Castle Gardens - castlegardens.org. This tells what port they left, what ship they came on and what the date was they landed in the US. My great grandparents were on the same ship but fortunately not married yet. Somewhere I heard that Germans who came around 1872 usually went to Chicago, IL. I knew they were Lutheran so I joined the Cook Co. message board and began to ask questions. There I found out the Lutheran Church downtown had been destroyed in a fire but could contact the Concordia Historical Society in St. Louis for the marriage information. On the marriage information it showed the town each was born in Germany. Many people who came from Prussia left the port of Hamburg. You can go into hamburg.de and pay them to look for your ancestors. On the manifest it will tell the town they came from. I know this costs money but it took me appox 5 years to find my great grandparent's place of orgin so the money might be well worth it to you. Email the Hamburg site (hamburg.de) and ask how much it would cost you. The more you know - the less it costs. Join geneanet.org to see what area in Germany your surnames came from. This is a site similar to Rootsweb in the US. Maybe you will find someone who can help you there if your surname is not common. The National Archives also has ship manifest records if you live close to one. Of course you would need to know when they came to the US. Another thing is it was common for Germans to change the spelling of their last name. My ggrandfather was born Meyer and changed it to Meier around 1905. At first I was only looking for Meier's. Keep an open mind when you are looking for your ancestors. Submit your GEDCOM to Rootsweb and Geneanet. I have had several ancestors living in Norway find me that way. Most people in Europe speak English as it is a second language in school. They are very nice people and will help you. Good luck, Marlene Sioux Falls, SD ----- Original Message ----- From: <prussia-roots-request@rootsweb.com> To: <prussia-roots@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 12:00 AM Subject: PRUSSIA-ROOTS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 64 > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Prussian towns (Wes Ward) > 2. Re: Prussian towns (PiggyNuffNuff@aol.com) > 3. Re: Prussian towns (Detlef Ziemann) > 4. Re: Prussian towns (Spaghettitree@aol.com) > 5. Re: Prussian towns (Myron E. Williams) > 6. Re: Prussian towns (gensearcher@att.net) > 7. Re: ca 1850s, East Prussia (ARoss14573@aol.com) > 8. Re: Prussian towns (Karl Roussin) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 21:41:23 +0000 > From: "Wes Ward" <wildwes27@hotmail.com> > Subject: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Prussian towns > To: PRUSSIA-ROOTS@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <BAY111-F65F44C91125A04B55E8AEBD810@phx.gbl> > Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed > > How would I go about finding what town or city my ancestry came from in > Prussia? > > _________________________________________________________________ > With tax season right around the corner, make sure to follow these few > simple tips. > http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/PreparationTips/PreparationTips.aspx?icid=HMFebtagline > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:10:40 EST > From: PiggyNuffNuff@aol.com > Subject: Re: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Prussian towns > To: prussia-roots@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <c8e.a5a59f6.331757e0@aol.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > > With great difficulty > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:30:04 +0100 > From: Detlef Ziemann <detlef.ziemann@t-online.de> > Subject: Re: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Prussian towns > To: prussia-roots@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <45E6026C.8070509@t-online.de> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > >> How would I go about finding what town or city my ancestry came from in >> Prussia? > > Shiplists? Naturalisation documents? > > -- > Mit freundlichen Gr??en / kind regards > Detlef Ziemann > Meine Ahnen und ich / my ancestors and me: http://www.dziemann.de > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:31:07 EST > From: Spaghettitree@aol.com > Subject: Re: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Prussian towns > To: prussia-roots@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <c1b.102d4223.33175cab@aol.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > > Oh c'mon - that's very true, but you start the same way as everywhere else > in > Europe - you scour everything in the United States. There is a very, very > long list of possiblities. Read through these message boards, go to > Cyndislist.com, familysearch.org, if you haven't already. Contact > genealogical > societies where you live or anywhere else in the country - and public > libraries and > university libraries. Tell us who when what you have so far - perhaps > somebody > can point you in the right direction. Every one of us knows a little > something - maybe a lot of something. > > Maureen > > > ************************************** > AOL now offers free email to > everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com. > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:32:44 -0600 > From: "Myron E. Williams" <myronwms@charter.net> > Subject: Re: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Prussian towns > To: prussia-roots@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <45E61F2C.7040507@charter.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Yes, but absolutely the best source will be church records in the USA > (or whatever country they immigrated to). Ships lists often omit those > details. Naturalization orders often give only the country (or king) > being repudiated. Declarations of intent to naturalize, I'm told, often > contain more detail, but these are often lost. > > Happy Hunting. > > Myron E. Williams > Crossville, TN > > > Detlef Ziemann wrote: >>> How would I go about finding what town or city my ancestry came from in >>> Prussia? >>> >> >> Shiplists? Naturalisation documents? >> >> > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 6 > Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:37:43 +0000 > From: gensearcher@att.net > Subject: Re: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Prussian towns > To: prussia-roots@rootsweb.com, PRUSSIA-ROOTS@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: > <030120070037.21421.45E6205600021F67000053AD21603760219D0A080C9D0E0A9C020A09@att.net> > > Content-Type: text/plain > > Hello Wes: I have found the best sources are not the readily available > documents such as immigration/naturalization, etc., but instead the more > obcure places such as in the records of the church the ancestor attended > here in the US or in county histories or in probate records. Sometimes > the records of the other children of the ancestor will give a place. > Sheila K. > > -------------- Original message from "Wes Ward" > <wildwes27@hotmail.com>: -------------- > > >> 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 > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 7 > Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:27:25 EST > From: ARoss14573@aol.com > Subject: Re: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] ca 1850s, East Prussia > To: prussia-roots@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <d59.35dee83.3317a21d@aol.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > > T. Borns, > In what Kreis are the cities that you believe Rohs (Ross) came from? I > can trace my ancestory with the last name of Rohs up to the mid 1800's > and my > ancestors then changed it to Ross. > I am looking for the children of Michael Rohs, born in Battrow, Kreis > Flatow and was married to Karoline W. Roeding on 9 Jan 1844 in Battrow. > I > would also like info on the parents of Michael Rohs. Mainly trying to > get paper > work for verification. > Believe that one of the children was August Albert Rohs(Ross) born > Nov. > 1850 in Battrow and married Wilhelmine Gerth. Would like to also verify > that this was a child of Michael and who were the other children? > The village next to Battrow was Linde(now Lipka) and this is where my > father was born and probably there were Rohs/Ross relatives there. Since > the > Germans were moved out of Poland after WWII there are no Rohs/Ross's in > the > area. I have found that my father and 2 aunts did not leave much > information > regarding relatives they left behind when they came to America. > Looking for help from anyone. > I will be going to Germany to visit relatives (in some cases I know > more > genealogy than they do) and wish to visit the records office's in Berlin > and > also the one in Leipzig. Has anyone had experience with these two > offices? > > Arnold Otto Ross > <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free > email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at > http://www.aol.com. > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 8 > Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:02:01 -0600 > From: "Karl Roussin" <kroussin@fidnet.com> > Subject: Re: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Prussian towns > To: <prussia-roots@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: <00af01c75bbe$c0773460$a788fb40@kroussin> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Wes > Send in His full name and date of birth , someone may be able to find a > record of Him. > If You know His middle name , send that in too. > Karl Roussin > ================================== > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wes Ward" <wildwes27@hotmail.com> > To: <PRUSSIA-ROOTS@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 3:41 PM > Subject: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Prussian towns > > >> How would I go about finding what town or city my ancestry came from in >> Prussia? >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> With tax season right around the corner, make sure to follow these few >> simple tips. >> > http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/PreparationTips/PreparationTips.aspx?icid=HMFebtagline >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> 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 > > > > ------------------------------ > > To contact the PRUSSIA-ROOTS list administrator, send an email to > PRUSSIA-ROOTS-admin@rootsweb.com. > > To post a message to the PRUSSIA-ROOTS mailing list, send an email to > PRUSSIA-ROOTS@rootsweb.com. > > __________________________________________________________ > 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 > email with no additional text. > > > End of PRUSSIA-ROOTS Digest, Vol 2, Issue 64 > ******************************************** > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.4/705 - Release Date: 2/27/2007 > 3:24 PM > >