dgrauman
dgrauman: Julianna Schlagowski: 22 Jan 1837 Prangenau, West Prussia, Prussia. Born to Simon Schlagowski and Joanna Ortowska I am having some trouble with this one. I know that there were different Prangenau, two in West Prussia. I know that there was also one in South Russia.
your ancestors were clearly Polish - not only their surnames but also their first names tell so - what was West Prussia was Poland before the partitions of Poland - the Germanic element in West Prussia was mostly restricted to cities and towns - some gentry were Germans too but most were gentry were Polonized in previous epochs - Prangenau must have been Prêgowo near todays Kartuzy (Karthaus) - the other Prangenau lies in the area of the delta of Vistula which was rather devoid of Polish nationals (mostly Dutch settlers who germanized inhabited the delta) - Johann and Lowise Kornatz may well have equally been Germans, Jews or a mixed couple, it is doubtful they were Polish as their names would have appeared in the Polish form (Kornac, Kornacz) in the official papers issued in the Kingdom of Poland (which still was under Russian rule) or the tzarist Russia - but it is possible that the names could have been transcribed from Russian papers in cyrillic into German rendering a German look to the names ( the first names still look German) - there was some German settlement in the area of Bia³ystok connected with the growth of textile industry in the area in the 19th century - there were other bigger and smaller areas of German settlement in present day Poland not only in urban areas (then in Russian Empire)
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