Hello to UK,
profesion listed of my gggrrandfather on the immigration registry at the
Brademburg Archiv: Torfstecher
Torf = peat, stechen = dig, cut, so it would be in English perhaps a
peatcutter or peatdigger or peatworker, thus being someone cutting peat
soil into rectangular pieces.
there is a great number of words and names with the "sch" sequence of
letters, is this a particular Silesian feature of the dialect ?
It's pure orthographic and typical German, but:
German sch = English sh = French = ch = Polish sz = Czech s^ (inverted
accent aigu just abov S).
German Schock = English shock = French choc.
I do not recognize any differenz in using this sound [sch = sh] compared
English with German. to wash = wasch(en), fisher = Fischer, ship =
Schiff, sharp = scharf, shame = Scham, mish-mash = Misch-Masch!
Is there any books that you could reccomend me to read (in English only
I am afraid) to undestand better the history of Silesia?
Ok, on http://www.genealogy.net/ you would find only in German a very
brief history. I remember that on Encyclopedia Britannica on web I saw some
lines about Silesia. Else try
http://rcswww.urz.tu-dresden.de/~db723152/Portal/htm
Or just look to
http://www.eticomm.net/~rhackenb/genealogy/silesia/silesia_wars.txt
concering 3 Silesian wars.
Bye from BRD
Helmut Hackenberg