CHRISTIAN KLEIN, East Prussia, born 22 August 1828

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1

Hallo~

My father, Otto KLEIN was born 24 October 1892 in Gr. Liebenau,
Rosenberg, West Prussia. His father, CHRISTIAN KLEIN, was supposedly
born in Alt Christburg, East Prussia, 22 August 1828. There are no
records in the Salt Lake Family History Library for Alt Christburg, East
Prussia. The KLEINS were Lutherans. Christian KLEIN died in West
Prussia in 1888. I do not know the names of his parents nor names of
brothers or sisters. Any suggestions for further research? Thank you
for any help you can give me. Danke! Sorry this is in English; as you
see, I don't know much German.

Arlene Klein Bogardus - Rolene50@concentric.net

2

Dear Mrs. Klein Bogardus,
wish I could help both of us. I have not been able to determine where and if
the church records of Alt-Christburg can be found -they are not in the
"Deutsche Zentralstelle fuer Genealogie in Leipzig," they are not in the
"Evangelisches Zentralarchiv in Berlin" and as you found out the Mormons do
not have any films of Alt-Christburg either. I have written a letter to a
Heritage Society in that area asking them if the church records for
Alt-Christburg survived the war - but I never got a reply.
My great grandmother was Auguste Klein. She was born August 17, 1851 in
Buchwalde and she was baptized August 26 in Alt-Christburg. Her father was
the bricklayer journeyman Carl Klein. They were of Lutheran faith.I have a
copy of the birth record. That is all I have so far - but next year I will
visit East Prussia again - will visit Alt-Christburg - and I will see what I
can find out.
Best regards,

Elke Hedstrom, Garland, Texas

3

Hi Arlene and Elke!
Have a look to http://members.surfeu.de/home/jhl/gene/igisuche.htm
delete the names at "Allerweltnamensproblem", put Klein and there appears
many Kleins
in Ost and Westpreussen. Maybe there is one coming from a place nearby!-
Also can find it in: www.familysearch.org - search - Intn. Gen. Index, put
in just Klein and Germany - search.
Good luck and regards.- Peter Knuth, Buenos Aires.-

4

Peter,

Thank you for thinking of me and your suggestion. Unfortunately, my birthdate
of 1828 is too early for the list. Surely wish I knew the names of Christian's
brothers and sisters so I would have something more to go on.

Arlene

"Ruth u. Peter Knuth" wrote:

5

Peter,

thanks for these ideas - I will try them out.
My main names on my father's side are "Klein" and "Lang" from East Prussia
(Bensee, Buchwalde). My main concern is still that I cannot find out where
the Alt-Christburg churchbooks are - because that's the church my ancestors
went to and my sister, brother and I were baptized in that church - and we
have no records.

Thanks again,
Elke Hedstrom, Dallas, TX USA

"Ruth u. Peter Knuth" wrote:

> Hi Arlene and Elke!
> Have a look to http://members.surfeu.de/home/jhl/gene/igisuche.htm
> delete the names at "Allerweltnamensproblem", put Klein and there

appears

> many Kleins
> in Ost and Westpreussen. Maybe there is one coming from a place nearby!-
> Also can find it in: www.familysearch.org - search - Intn. Gen. Index,

put

6

Dear Elke,
I gather you are from Alt-Christburg. How wonderful that you have visited
there. I have always wondered what the countryside looked like in that area
where my father came from. If Christian Klein, born 22 Aug 1828 is indeed from
Alt Christburg, it is quite possible that some of your relatives are related to
him also; if only I could make some connection as to his parents were as well as
brothers and sisters. Let me give you more of my Klein line and see if there
might be some connection. Starting with my father, Hermann Otto Klein, born 24
Oct. 1892 in Gr. Liebenau; his brother Hermann August Klein, also born in Gr.
Liebenau on 28 Dec 1890. Their parents were Christian Ferdinand Klein, born 19
Feb 1868 and Augusta Urbanowski, born 16 Jan 1869in Babenz, West Prussia. Her
father was Martin Urbanowski and mother, Dorothea Schwuntowski. Both of these
persons died in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. in 1939 and 1943 respectively. This
couple had 12 children: Herman August, Hermann Otto, Hedwig (Hattie) Helen
Martha Klein, born 1894, Frederick, born 1896, William, born 1897, Carl
(Charles) born 1899, Theresa born 1901, Rose Elizabeth Wilhelmina Klein born
1902, Walter born 1905, Margaretta Elizabeth Alma Klein born 1906, Edwin
Albert born 1908 and Selma Amanda Hermine Klein, born 1910. Christian
Ferdinand Klein, my grandfather, was the son of Christian Klein, born 22 August
1828. A very good possibility is that his children were named after some of his
brothers and sisters. Do you have some of those names born in the early
1820's? Now Christian married Caroline Janascheck in West Prussia and I have
her birth record and that of her entire family. After her husband died in
Rosenberg, West Prussia, she came to the U.S. with my grandparents, an aunt, and
nephew and landed in Baltimore, MD, January 3, 1893 on the ship Weimar. My,
didn't that mother give her daughters a lot of names!!! What was with this
Elizabeth thing for their middle names?

At any rate, you are the only person I have met who knows anything at all about
Alt Christburg. No doubt you have searched a 5-10 mile radius around that place
for clues also. Please keep in touch. There must be a connection here somehow
since your family also had the Klein name. I realize that Klein over there is
like Smith and Jones here in the U.S. I live in Utah, and have access to the
Family History Library here. I tried the suggestions made by Peter, but the
1828 date was too early to be on record there. It is too bad that one of us
doesn't have living relatives in the area. Let me know if you have any more
ideas? I got my uncle and dad's birth records from the Polish Embassy during
the cold war as well as their parent's marriage record; all written in Polish,
of course and they came COD and cost over $50.00 and that was 32 years ago in
1970. It might just be our luck that our records were lost during WWII.

Arlene Bogardus, Orem, UT

Elke Hedstrom wrote:

7

Hi Elke,
just write to

Mr.Wolfgang Klein,
Bergstr 7,
79739 Schwoerstadt
Germany

Mr. Klein has very very much information about "Klein" in East-Prussia.

Best regards Jan-Holgar Borm

Elke Hedstrom schrieb:

8

Christian Klein who was born 22 Aug. 1828 in Alt Christburg, had the following
children, all probably born there also.

Caroline Klein, born 17 August 1866
Christian Ferdinand Klein, born 19 Feb 1868
Christina Anna Klein, born 11 Dec 1872
Frederick Klein, born 18 Feb 1875
August William Klein, born 12 Dec 1878

All of these people came to the U.S. in January 1893, with their mother, Caroline
Janascheck Klein after her husband died in Gr. Liebenau, Rosenberg, Westpr.

Elke, does any of those children fit into you line? I am not positive where in
Mohrungen, Ostpr, they were all born, but some Lutheran Church record her in the
states mentioned Alt Christburg.

This is getting exciting now that we are getting so close to seeing Lutheran
Church records of that area.

Arlene Klein Bogardus

Jan-Holgar Borm wrote:

9

Arlene,
I finally managed to look at the information my cousin from Germany send me
a few weeks ago (I am still working on another line - also from East
Prussia. My entire family is from East Prussia and I was born there too. We
all had to leave the area after World War II.
This is what I have on the Klein's:
Auguste Klein, born August 17, 1851 in Buchwalde (I have her birth record) -
My great grandmother
A sister of her's was: Anna Maria Klein, born in Buchwalde (have her birth,
marriage, death record)

Their parents were: Carl Klein from Kunzendorf.(Have his marriage record -
he was married in 1847)
His wife's name is Wilhelmine Scha(e)rein. She was born July 27, 1819 in
Schertingswalde (Have her birth record). She died December 3, 1897 (Have her
death record). My great great grandparents.

Unfortunately our names do not match. Though Klein is a very common name, as
you knew yourself already, the towns are pretty close where your Klein's and
mine come from.
Your Klein's need not have to be born in Alt-Christburg - people living in
the surrounding villages attended the Alt-Christburg church too. All of my
records have the Alt-Christburg church seal but no one was from
Alt-Christburg.
Since you mention Gross Liebenau. I can see in "Meyer's Orts- und
Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs (Leipzig 1912) that Gross Liebenau was
just an "estate" and the people would have attended the church in
Finkenstein. The mormons have films of Finkenstein.

Hope, you keep in touch since I plan to visit the area next year in May. We
have a family reunion then and I plan to attend it. I still have connections
to the area - but - if people are not into genealogy they do not know what
to do.

I have never written to the archive in Allenstein (Olstyn) because -
luckily - I come from a large family and despite of the war - family members
collected documents - they needed those documents for all kinds of proof -
since we were refugees from East Prussia. Anyhow, someone wrote on this East
Prussian mailing list that he was satisfied with the information he received
from the Allenstein archive.
So much for now,

Regards,

Elke Hedstrom, Garland, TX /USA

10

Jan-Holgar,

thank you very much for your help. Luckily, I have specific locations for my
Klein family.
Best regards,

Elke Hedstrom