Polish & Prussian/German town name cross-reference.

Does any one know of a good cross reference for Polish towns that may have been renamed under Prussian/German occupation? I have found several town names on documents from that period that I can not find on todays maps. Either the towns no longers exist, changed their names or the document is using the Prussian/German name on the document.

Thanks

A partial lsit is found at:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niemieckie_nazwy_polskich_miejscowo%C5%9Bci

Thanks Polonius3, this will be very helpful.

My great grandparents came from Prussia. Great Gr father last name was "Prain" probably prehn originally but don't know. His wife Great Gr mother last name was "Unka" maybe "Yonka" question:1. Are Prussians part Russian? 2. Is "Unka" a Russian name?3. How about "Prain"? 4. What are Prussians, part Polish, Russian and German? Appreciate any help Slovicgirl

I'll just answer the Russian question...

Prussians are definitely not part Russians - if anything they're Germans.

It's a simplified answer as the original Prussians no longer exist. They were Baltic people related to the Lithuanians and Latvians (NOT Russians).

The region is pretty much split between Poland and Russia today but has been it's own country for many years and the capital was Königsberg which today is called Kaliningrad (Królewiec i Polish). For a very long time Prussia was also part of Germany. Confusing enough? Welcome to European history... ;)

Prussia is the English term. In Polish it's called Prusy and in German it's called Preußen.



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Just check out this link below and maybe it'll help...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia

This one is pretty good too.
kartenmeister.com/preview/databaseuwe.asp

Heh:)

There is a name of a tree which is purely polish, i.e. spruce, sonding 100% Polish and meaning literally coming form Prussia.

This is what about the word origin says etymology:

Spruce: lit. "from Prussia," from Spruce, Sprws (late 14c.). Spruce seems to have been a generic term for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants (beer, board, leather, and the tree was believed to have come from Prussia.

Also in Norman Davies's book God's playground: a history of Poland
The name of the spruce tree is supposed to derive from the Polish words z Prus 'from Prussia'

Prussia is definitely NOT part of Russia. All Germans from Pommerania, East Prussia, West Prussia, Schlesien, and Brandenburg were called Prussians. Prussians are GERMAN.

The Baltic Prussians are long gone.

Anyone heard of a town named £ipsalde, Prussia. My great great grandfather was from there.

Prussians are German? Not at all. There were many nationalities living in Prussia. Western Prussia areas were inhabited by Slavs. In current Eastern Germany toponyms literally scream-I used to be Slavic in the past.

Slavs were living on territories where today such cities like Berlin, Leipzig or Dresden exist.

My great grandfather (born around 1870) indicated on some official forms that he came from Dembne, Marchawa. Bear in mind that someone else was typing his words and the old boy had a thick accent! So the spelling might be very different. He also listed his birthplace as Posen on his marriage certificate.

For the umpteenth time, Prussians were Balts long settled in German territory:-)

Could be Dębno, Dębie ....

Thanks Ironside. ...will look at these.

Dorchie
Posen is the German name for Poznan, that's the only thing I can tell you, but I don't know what Dembne is :(. But it doesn't sound German, so it has to be the polish name for that town. You should search within the borders of the grandduchy of posen, you'll find it on wikipedia

Most probably Dębno in gmina Stęszew, 19 km south-west of Poznań (Posen). At the end of the 19th century, the village had 15 farmsteads with 173 inhabitants of which 161 declared themselves as Catholics.

lol..depends what period of history we talking about.
prussians belong to baltic group,same as Estonians and Finnish people.there were last pagans of Europe,conquered and germanized by teutonic order.
after TO conquered them,they converted them to Catholicism and started process of germanization. which was gradual.even in 19 century old prussian language was still present in rural areas.

prussians were not german tribes..prussian are germanized balts
silezians were partly germanized slavs..from silezia came idea of creating polish state..it was birthplace of Poland. area was settled by germans after mongol invasion and gradually germanized.ahhh..cant be bothered talking to ignorants

This is utterly sensational news. Can you point to any source?


I have always thought the birthplace of Poland was Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) and not Silesia. At the death of the first Piast ruler, Mieszko I (992), the borders of Poland were roughly the same as today.


It actually started quite a time before the Mongol invasion of 1241.

probably from historycy.org..i will find you source later.would need to dig abit.


he was chosen as strongest leader,but idea came from silesian nobility..before that silesia was kinda bohemian province.by far most rich and socially organized than rest of Poland.


well..am talking about large scale immigration of germans into silesia..it was introduced german law,exempting german settles from taxes.thus attracting large scale german settlements.reason was depopulation of silesia after mongol invasion.


donelaitis.vdu.lt/prussian/lang.htm
found in many sites...extinct completely in 16-18 century,tho there were some attempts to recreate it in 19 century and some form of old Prussian existed in local dialects.

I have a wedding certificate written in German with the following two place names in Poland mentioned as places of birth of the celebrants:
Stepnica in Rufold [sic. for doubts about Rufold spelling see below]
Meseritz (Rufold)

I am trying to work out the location of Meseritz since there seem to be at least three locations with the same Germanized spelling of meseritz (western poland, eastern poland, and western ukraine). Does the addition of Rufold add any clues? I am not sure if I have transcribed that word correctly. The u has a circle above it ("ring above") and the f could be the German ss.

Can anyone help me here please?
Thanks
Gaby

Forgot to add that the wedding certificate is from 1913

This 'Meseritz' is most probably the town "Międzyrzec", now in Lubuskie voivodship. Międzyrzec was Polish until 1793, but then became Prussian in the result of the second partition of Poland. It continued to be Prussian after the WWI, however, even if the most part of the Wielkopolska province became Polish again.

Thanks for the response. So how can I be sure that it isn't Międzyrzec Podlaski which apparently would also be germanized as "Meseritz"?

Does the Rufold in brackets after the town names of Stepnica and Meseritz in the marriage certificate mean anything to you?

Why do you think that Międzyrzec Podlaski would also be germanized as "Meseritz"?


If you put the scan of this marriage certificate, it would help perhaps.

My mother and all her family (both sides) were from East Prussia. She always saw herself as ethnically German. Her family spoke German and were Lutheran. Most of her family was killed, sent to Siberian or fled at the end of the Second World War. She told me that one of her grandmothers was Lithuianian and some of her family may have come from Sweden years ago. However, after a recend DNA test, I found I was 47% Eastern European and only 2% German. I wonder what she would have thought of that result.

I'm pretty sure that she would have thought that she had a wonderful child that she loved very much, I don't think the DNA test would have mattered to her , the fact that some your family survived Siberia (Like mine did) is the most important and valuable factor here,.

Hi!

I have come across a german familyname that I suspect is related to a placename in the former eastern part of Germany and today most likely a part of Poland.

The name is Thronnigen, but of course variations in spelling could occur like Thronigen, Tronnicken and so on. Perhaps there is a place called Thronnig och something like that. This person was married to a Ratzki which seems to be a somehow slavic name.

Many thanks for any help:-)

Paul in Sweden

Hi, Im trying to find out what town an ancestor was born in. On the immigration transcript it has something that looks like Berluialius, Prussia. Of course I could be reading it all wrong. Definitely 'Be' at the start and 'lius' at the end, other letters I'm just guessing at. The ancestor came out to Australia in 1867 aged 27

Thanks, Kirsten in Australia