Carole writes:
Any comments on my speculations are invited.
I have recently found two persons with the same name and I suspect they are
the same persons. One of them is my ancestor and is from Papinghausen
(Kreis Minden or near it). The other is said to have been born in Rahden
Westfalen. By Mapquest these towns are about 25 miles apart. It seems to
possible that the one born about 1764 in Rahden (if he was) could have
traveled that far to have a son born in Papinghausen in approximately 1795.
These were desperately poor farmers as much as I can tell.
Does anyone know if there is a map with a line of demarcation that shows the
land that used to be Prussia prior to 1866 and became Poland later? Did
this change in lands occur "all in a piece" or did if happen in small pieces
at different times?
"Carole Gerosolimo" <cgerosolimo@astound.net
Hi Carole,
re your note about Prussian territory becoming Polish. I recently looked
thro a FHS Hannover film of the early 1800's which showed the local priests
were resubmitting late 1700's parish records in the formatt their new French
rulers required. This may be the same in the case you quoted.
To be certain these records are of the same one person, you need to look at
the church record(s) made at the time of the ceremony (or write to the
pastor of the church if you can't find a film), which will also give
witnesses names and not the duplicate(s) recorded in the areas 'central
office'. Otherwise you may be confusing two cousins with the same names.
Duplicate records can also be incorrectly entered by a clerk - I have
records given me by a church and are mirrored in another archive, but when
the records are compared with the duplicate record in another area archive
they have recorded the mother and her eldest son as being the parents of her
husband/his father!
Good luck
Rena in England