Finding 1939 birth place in Pomerania, Poland

Question

I am looking for my mother's birth place and where she last lived in Pomerania 1924/1939. The documents I have are confusing. One states her place of birth as Kisiewe. Another states Kiczewa. Nearest I can find is Kisewo (Lebork) and Kiszewy (Turek) and Stara Kiszewa. I tried them all but nothing.

Where would birth & marriage records be kept for such a place?

Her fathers name also confusing. Name is Józef Szczepanski (as per my moms UK marriage certificate) but her ID Card states her father as Jozef Kuzewinski & her mother as Stefka Stowska.

In 1939 she separated from parents never to see them again. She survived WW2 and ended up in England as a displaced person. I tried Ancestry.com, Arolsen Archives (Germany), Gdansk archives, Poznan database. Even local parish churches even some local historians have tried.

Answer 1

I come from Germany. I also have ancestors in Pomerania. The parts of the country that are in present-day Poland have all been renamed under the Polish administration of the former German areas. So Stargard / Pomerania became "Szczeciński" and today it became Stargard again. Dramburg became "Drawsko Pommerski" and so on. That doesn't make it easy. If you want to display your genealogy on a software in maps, for example, then it is only very often possible to use the current place names from the map providers (whether Google or OSM ...) Then there is also the fact that many archives have been destroyed. See answer fhtess65: Krzemieniec was (!!) a place in Poland and was annexed by the Russians in 1939 and is now part of Ukraine. It is obvious that the probability of finding documents tends towards zero. Then there is / there was "Western Pomerania". That is in Germany, today's federal state "Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania", then there was Pomerania east of the Oder in today's Poland, part of which was also called "Hinterpommern". Try this link: https://www.pommerscher-greif.de/ortsverzeichnis-qdb.html It is an index of places. The places listed here are the district towns. They are linked and lead to all of the smaller localities. If there is a chance that will help. The website can also be used in English and if you can't find the right thing, there are other search and query options that could bring you closer to your goal.

Answer 2

@Tom's answer prompts me to say: yes, the fact Krzemieniec (now Kremenets) is now in the Ukraine adds another layer of difficulty. I'm not sure if my grandmother was able to take the birth certificates with her and lost them (or had them stolen by unscrupulous officials along the way), or if she had to leave them behind. They had an hour to pack and she was able to get a servant to bring another suitcase to the station before they were loaded onto the cattle cars, all in the middle of the night. My grandfather was already in prison, so it was her and four children. The only official documents I have from that period are her 1934 Identity Card, and those issued by the Polish Free Army, and then by British officials during the post-war period.

WWII created so many difficulties for so many families and for their descendants, as did the constant shifting of borders.

From my own research, I've discovered the place names have become a bit garbled as they're passed down through the generations. My uncle mentioned somewhere from his childhood in his dictated memoir, but when I asked on a Polish genealogy group. was told this place didn't exist. Unfortunately, with birth records locked down and not available publicly, this does cause problems for those of us trying to do research based on information that might not be quite accurate. Also, sadly, some records were destroyed during WWII. My dad (born in Krzemieniec in 1935) was never able to get a copy of his birth certificate. A friend of his in Poland tried, and there was no trace of it.

I believe the FamilySearch Wiki keeps its place pages updated. I'm assuming you've been through the resources there for Pomerania, but it's always worth checking back from time to time as more and more material there is digitized, indexed, and made available.

Wish I could offer more help - I know exactly how you feel.