Hallo Rolf-Peter:
Oh my goodness, THANK YOU so very much for your reply. You have answered
some questions that I have wondered about and have been confused about
for so long. I appreciate you taking the time to give such a good
response. There is one thing that I would like to clarify though.
You said that a Village can sometimes be directly connected with an
Estate/Rittergut. Since my Reussen was called a "Dorf" in Meyers Orts,
(but not specifically called a Rittergut), does that mean for certain
that Reussen was not connected to a Rittergut? In other words, let's say
that a Village WAS connected with a Rittergut. If you looked that
Village name up in Meyers-Orts, would it still be called a Dorf, or would
it be called a Rittergut. I'm just trying to clarify so that I learn how
this works for possible future research into other ancestral towns.
Also, I have one last question on this topic for now if you don't mind -
I found one entry in Meyers Orts for a town that I'm interested in - it
was listed as a Vorwerk. How does a Vorwerk compare to a Village or
Rittergut? Is there any connection between a Rittergut, Village and
Vorwerk? I looked up Vorwerk in my German dictionary and it does not
appear at all, so if you could explain this term, I would greatly
appreciate it.
Your reasons for migration during the timeperiod I was interested in all
fit perfectly with what I have read in books. However, you spelled it
all out concisely and clearly. I think that I actually did too much
reading all at once and became overwhelmed with all of the information so
that I missed the bigger picture!
Again, thank you Rolf Peter for all of your help with my questions. I am
very grateful.
Kindest regards,
Laura