This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: jdteske1 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.teske/230.2.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi Janet, I actually am one of those Midwest transplants to the East Coast. I am originally from Wisconsin and came here to Maryland 50 years ago to work in the Gov't. I have not encountered any Teskes from New England personally. The few I've met here (very few) either have Midwestern roots as I do, or are an isolated few from Virginia where there are a couple of German settlements. Most of the ones I know seem to have a similar pathway. My ancestors came from Prussia, which no longer exists, and they came from the Prussian Provinces of Posen (where mine emigrated from), Pomerania, and Mecklinburg. About 10 years ago I ran into another John Teske (thought I am J-O-N....my mom always marched to a different drummer) who is an officer of the Germans from Russia Society. He had records of some 200 Teske families in the Netze River Valley (today on the border between Polish Poznan province and Pomarania (see below.) His village and mine were about 20 km apart. These people, a! nd many other Germans likely came from the Baltic coast originally, but in the 1700s were recruited to drain swampland in this river valley for agriculture. This draining was made possible by the building of the Bromberg Canal which reversed the flow of this river. Once the land was reclaimed many remained where they were the "middle managers" on this land on behalf of Polish nobles. (Middle Manager is a relative word...it means they were not Polish serfs.) When conditions got bad after various Napoleonic Wars, and the Revolution of 1848, many of these people looked elsewhere and some even looked elsewhere 50 years earlier. If a person had some money saved to afford passage, they came to America where the was free land in the Midwest (this is my family's story.) If they didn't have money, they took up the offer of Catherine the Great (herself a Prussian princess) who recruited Germans to populate lands in present day Ukraine, Moldova, and old Russian provinces of Volhynia! , Bessarbarabia and others which Russia had conquered from the Turks, but which actual Russians were wary of settling, based upon earlier histories with the Turks. My ancestor, a blacksmith, had a cash income and a trade and went directly to Wisconsin in 1864. The other John Teske's family went to Russia where under Catherine they enjoyed autonomy, the preservation of their culture, language, religion etc. When later Tsars reneged on these freedoms many of these "Volga Germans" later (1890s to start of WW I) came to the US and Canada where they mostly settled in the Dakotas and Prairie Canada since that was where land was still available. Now to complicate matters even more, these areas of what became the east parts of a unified Germany (1871) were ceded to Poland after WW II as reparations so all the names have changed. Posen became Poznan, Pomerania became Pomorza, the city of Stettin (where a maiden aunt think was the original place my family came from) became Szeczin and the Netze River became the Notec River. The Poles took over and k! icked all the ethnic Germans out. My village which was Helldorf became Heliodorowo and the regional town of Samotchin became Szamocin. A great many Germans, particularly those with Midwest roots are in this category. There never was a big German settlement in New England, as the Germans were mostly farmers and most assuredly not fishermen. They weren't miners either which is why you don't see eastern Germans (not the old GDR Germans) in places like Pennsylvania in great numbers. These were often settled by Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, areas in Europe with a lot of mining. So unfortunately I can't help you directly. I think you and your uncle are the first New England Teskes I've ever heard of. I actually have not traced any Teske's in Wisconsin....and there are a fair number there, other than my own family, though I have explored this with other folk there with the name. The name is still somewhat common in Germany. [The last person legally executed in Western Europe w! as an East German spy named Werner Teske who was shot after he tried t o defect. Google that name, it is an interesting story. (Well interesting to me, since I worked in US Intelligence for 35 years.) I'm happy to share whatever info I know, or at least some of the historical background. BTW the name Teske is a patronymic derived (along with about 50 other German surnames) from the construct "Son of Mathis or Matheus." One was a Disciple the other the Evangelist (don't remember which was which.) This is a distinction not made in English where both biblical personages come out as "Matthew." Jon Teske Olney, MD Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. <br>

I felt I just had to respond to this conversation. I, too, am searching for my Teske relatives. I have been searching for many years and still have not found any connections. I have gotten as far back as 1838 when my gggrandfather, William Teske, married my gggrandmother, Justina Prill in Nakel, Prussia just west of Bromberg. It was from Nakel that my family moved around in what is now Poland , from Sompolno where my ggrandfather, Gustav Teske was married to Karoline Koenig, to Ruszkowo Kr.Kolo to Tarnow where my grandfather William was born. His baptism was from Kruschwitz in Posen, to Volhynia and back to Nakel from where in 1892 they set off for Canada through the port of Hamburg. They settled here in Saskatchewan, Canada where I grew up. I feel that there were some Teske relatives around Nakel as they went back there before they immigrated to Canada. It has been said that they had relatives in Pomerania but I have not any documentation to prove this. Would love to make some connections and would answer any questions you might have. Joan (Teske) Meyer from Saskatchewan, Canada. -----Original Message----- From: teske-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:teske-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of gc-gateway@rootsweb.com Sent: July-16-14 4:52 PM To: teske-l@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [TESKE] TESKE religious affiliations This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: jdteske1 Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.teske/230.2.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi Janet, I actually am one of those Midwest transplants to the East Coast. I am originally from Wisconsin and came here to Maryland 50 years ago to work in the Gov't. I have not encountered any Teskes from New England personally. The few I've met here (very few) either have Midwestern roots as I do, or are an isolated few from Virginia where there are a couple of German settlements. Most of the ones I know seem to have a similar pathway. My ancestors came from Prussia, which no longer exists, and they came from the Prussian Provinces of Posen (where mine emigrated from), Pomerania, and Mecklinburg. About 10 years ago I ran into another John Teske (thought I am J-O-N....my mom always marched to a different drummer) who is an officer of the Germans from Russia Society. He had records of some 200 Teske families in the Netze River Valley (today on the border between Polish Poznan province and Pomarania (see below.) His village and mine were about 20 km apart. These people, a! nd many other Germans likely came from the Baltic coast originally, but in the 1700s were recruited to drain swampland in this river valley for agriculture. This draining was made possible by the building of the Bromberg Canal which reversed the flow of this river. Once the land was reclaimed many remained where they were the "middle managers" on this land on behalf of Polish nobles. (Middle Manager is a relative word...it means they were not Polish serfs.) When conditions got bad after various Napoleonic Wars, and the Revolution of 1848, many of these people looked elsewhere and some even looked elsewhere 50 years earlier. If a person had some money saved to afford passage, they came to America where the was free land in the Midwest (this is my family's story.) If they didn't have money, they took up the offer of Catherine the Great (herself a Prussian princess) who recruited Germans to populate lands in present day Ukraine, Moldova, and old Russian provinces of Volhynia! , Bessarbarabia and others which Russia had conquered from the Turks, but which actual Russians were wary of settling, based upon earlier histories with the Turks. My ancestor, a blacksmith, had a cash income and a trade and went directly to Wisconsin in 1864. The other John Teske's family went to Russia where under Catherine they enjoyed autonomy, the preservation of their culture, language, religion etc. When later Tsars reneged on these freedoms many of these "Volga Germans" later (1890s to start of WW I) came to the US and Canada where they mostly settled in the Dakotas and Prairie Canada since that was where land was still available. Now to complicate matters even more, these areas of what became the east parts of a unified Germany (1871) were ceded to Poland after WW II as reparations so all the names have changed. Posen became Poznan, Pomerania became Pomorza, the city of Stettin (where a maiden aunt think was the original place my family came from) became Szeczin and the Netze River became the Notec River. The Poles took over and k! icked all the ethnic Germans out. My village which was Helldorf became Heliodorowo and the regional town of Samotchin became Szamocin. A great many Germans, particularly those with Midwest roots are in this category. There never was a big German settlement in New England, as the Germans were mostly farmers and most assuredly not fishermen. They weren't miners either which is why you don't see eastern Germans (not the old GDR Germans) in places like Pennsylvania in great numbers. These were often settled by Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, areas in Europe with a lot of mining. So unfortunately I can't help you directly. I think you and your uncle are the first New England Teskes I've ever heard of. I actually have not traced any Teske's in Wisconsin....and there are a fair number there, other than my own family, though I have explored this with other folk there with the name. The name is still somewhat common in Germany. [The last person legally executed in Western Europe w! as an East German spy named Werner Teske who was shot after he tried t o defect. Google that name, it is an interesting story. (Well interesting to me, since I worked in US Intelligence for 35 years.) I'm happy to share whatever info I know, or at least some of the historical background. BTW the name Teske is a patronymic derived (along with about 50 other German surnames) from the construct "Son of Mathis or Matheus." One was a Disciple the other the Evangelist (don't remember which was which.) This is a distinction not made in English where both biblical personages come out as "Matthew." Jon Teske Olney, MD Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. <br> ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TESKE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message