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My Grandparents immigrated to Perth, Western Australia in 1950.

My Grandfather was born in Ploiesti in 1924 and went on to be a soldier in the in the Romanian Airforce during WW2.

During the war he was a Prisoner of war in Germany until Hitler took him as a Radiographer and Navigator. He was a qualified Engineer prior to the war. I know this from the documents we found when he past away. He even kept his ration card and a P.O.W. card.The cards were written in German, the card had a Swastika on it.But his second wife had Dimentia and misplaced that card. I am in the process of tracking it down.

After the war they were in a Displaced People's Camp in Berlin.

My Grandmother was born in Brasov in 1923. She was from German decent and passed away in 1976 - I never got to meet her.

When my Grandfather passed away in 1996 we got a letter telling us that we had inherited some of Ploiesti's oil fields and land in Transylvania. As my Mother couldn't speak Romanian we have never really known, only we know it involved Oil and land in Transylvania and a Vineyard in Ploiesti. However, because we were not Citizens of Romania the Government had confiscated it? And they said they would pass it on to any extended family we had in Romania. Mum now regrets it. My Grandparents had secrets, and because we didn't speak Romanian we couldn't communicate with them. I know from my Aunty that when they were in Romania they had wealth, but not when they fled. All the photos we have showed them looking well off financially. My Grandparents never returned and they made Mum and us promise never to go. As I said "secrets".

I desperately want to track down my extended family. All I have is photos that were taken in the 80's and old ones taken before the war. I know that some of my Grandmothers family ended up in Canada. I have my Grandfathers address book from 1978,and it has Romanian addresses that don't seem to exist now. We do have some names in there that Mum believes to be Aunties but they were older than my Grandfather and I have no idea how to contact them.

Because my Grandfathers surname is common it's really hard to find him.

Question: With this mixed German / Romanian ancestry and dispersed geography across a short time period, where do I begin to find who my great grand parents were?

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  • Welcome to G&FH SE! Unfortunately, we have to be very careful whenever information is being sought about someone born less than 100 years ago, like your grandparents, and so I have removed their names from your question. The background to this, and some ways that you can do your research within our policies, is described at our help center. Could I also ask you to edit your question to make clear what the specific question you are wanting to ask is? Is it perhaps how to find a Romanian record of your grandfather's birth?
    – PolyGeo
    Apr 29, 2015 at 5:58
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    @BridieLiggit I edited your question a little bit more to narrow down the scope of what you are asking. An idea is could edit it more by including details of the inheritance letter (location only) and possibly an older photo if you think it might help identify the location (i.e. it pictures a town skyline) as we know where they were born, but not where they lived prior to the war from the info supplied.. and that is probably a good starting point for you..
    – CRSouser
    Apr 29, 2015 at 15:40
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    FYI (1) Romania was an ally of Germany in WW2. Your grandfather would NOT have been a German prisoner of war. Some Romanian citizens actually served in the Waffen-SS (part of the German army), mostly those of German descent, but perhaps not exclusively. (2) After Romania's capitulation to the Russian army, a communist regime was set up that, among other actions, nationalized many businesses. Most likely that was the cause of your family's loss in property.
    – bgwiehle
    Apr 30, 2015 at 0:43
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    Yes. I am aware of that. But when he died we found a P.O.W. Info card along with his ration card. According to my Mum he was a great Radio operator and went on to serve for the Germans and was sent to Italy. But we don't know how he came to be in the P.O.W camp. We have a older picture of all Soldiars.It was a postcard with marks penned above their heads. It's thought to be my great grandfather. I'm desperate to find anything about his life in Romania. Apr 30, 2015 at 12:11
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    @Bridie Liggitt What language was the POW card in? What date and which authority signed it?
    – bgwiehle
    Apr 30, 2015 at 17:18

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