Author Topic: Prussia research ideas please  (Read 828 times)

Offline hi vis

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Prussia research ideas please
« on: Wednesday 25 April 12 20:31 BST (UK) »
I am interested in tracing more information (dates,marriage,offspring, ancestry etc) on an individual living in Brandenburg, Prussia in the early-mid 1800s and would appreciate any helpful ideas on how I might proceed.  This is to build on the very sketchy information gathered so far:
- an 1882 UK marriage certificate of his son (b 1854) gives his first name, family name and occupation and shows him as deceased.
- there is reference to what is possibly him as father of a bride married in Berlin Lichtenburg in 1873 on the IGI records, but no mention of a mother. I can find no linked B/C/M/D records for him or B/C records for either of these children on FamilySearch.
- an article on the history of the town's Optical Telegraph station published in BRAWO, (Brandenburger Wochenblatt) and a publication of memoirs of a former resident provide anecdotal evidence of his carrying on the trade of optician and having several children. 

Does anyone know of any obvious resources other than the IGI which might help me take the story a bit further?

Thanks.

Offline GrahamSimons

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Re: Prussia research ideas please
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 25 April 12 22:11 BST (UK) »
Brandenburg now lies in Germany, of course. One good source of help will be the Anglo-German Family History Society http://www.agfhs.org.uk/

Cyndi Howells' site has given me so many leads in the past - not sure whether it'll help you, but have a look: http://www.cyndislist.com/germany/
Simons Barrett Jaffray Waugh Langdale Heugh Meade Garnsey Evans Vazie Mountcure Glascodine Parish Peard Smart Dobbie Sinclair....
in Stirlingshire, Roxburghshire; Bucks; Devon; Somerset; Northumberland; Carmarthenshire; Glamorgan

Offline JustinL

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Re: Prussia research ideas please
« Reply #2 on: Thursday 26 April 12 07:34 BST (UK) »
Hello and welcome to Rootschat!

In my experience, you will find very few German records online. You will need to establish the city of origin of this family and obtain records from local sources, which in your case will be parish records from a church archive.

A large swathe of the original Brandenburg east of the River Oder is now in Poland. Lichtenberg is, however, in east Berlin.

Can you please give us the names and occupations that you have for both father and son?

Did the son become a naturalised British subject?

Is the article you mention available online?

Have you searched for either father or son in the online Berlin Adressbuecher (http://adressbuch.zlb.de/)?

Rgds, Justin

Offline hi vis

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Re: Prussia research ideas please
« Reply #3 on: Friday 27 April 12 09:57 BST (UK) »
Thanks to you both for the ideas.  I'll have a look at them,  but as I suspected and you suggest it seems unlikely that there will be much more to be found on-line.    The Berlin address book is interesting but as the residence appears to have been Brandenburg a/d Havel it may not prove useful in this case. 

Regards,


Offline JustinL

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Re: Prussia research ideas please
« Reply #4 on: Friday 27 April 12 12:14 BST (UK) »
This address book is probably a bit too late (1892), but may nonetheless provide some useful leads.

http://adressbuecher.genealogy.net/entry/book/290