8
I wanted to address a point that originally came up in the comments to bgwiehle's answer.
Places are known by different names throughout their history. If a place was called by a particular name during the time the Nazis were in power, it may not be acceptable to use that name in a social setting, for obvious reasons. However, as historians and researchers ...
8
If they were catholic or protestant
Statistically (based location, given names and surname), as ethnic Poles and living in rural Upper Silesia, your great-great-grandparents were Catholic. (Catholics used a much broader range of given names than the Lutherans). This assumption would be confirmed or refuted in the microfilmed church records.
Dates and ...
7
Sectioned using photo orientation in question. German transcript (mis-spellings per original), followed by English translation:
[top left]
Von
Zum An[d]enken
1916
From ___
For remembrance
1916
[bottom]
Lieber Richard
Hier hast [Du] noch von Vater
ein Andenken
Vater würde sich auch sehr
freuen über Euren kleinen
Jungen
Dear Richard
Here you have a ...
6
According to Familienforschung in Westpreußen, which maps German and Polish names in West Prussia, Friedrichsbruch today is Bruki Unisławskie.
Checking with Google Maps shows it's a bit over 7km from Kokocko (formerly Kokotzko), an absolutely feasible distance for the christening of a newborn. In fact, according to the source above, the Protestant church ...
5
This is extremely unlikely. A lot of of records were destroyed when the Prussian military archive in Potsdam burned down in 1945. Except for some Reichsmarine (navy) records, almost all individual documents from the Prussian army are lost. Depending where you ancestor lived when he was drafted, local muster rolls might be available from local archives. ...
5
Some marriage register records will have official stamps in them documenting that a fee was paid, and how much it was. I expect these fees varied from place to place and over time. Furthermore, different documents associated with a marriage might also have different fees. Below is an example of two such stamps (on two different pages) from an 1822 marriage ...
4
When I have questions for which no direct answer seems to exist, my answer to the question Are there any other records here in the US which might lend a clue? is anything you can lay hands on. It may be that the problem can only be solved with indirect evidence, in which case, the more bits and pieces you have, the better.
For the case which was most ...
4
There are almost no records left, the Heeresarchiv Potsdam was bombed in April 1945 and destroyed by fire. The records destroyed include also those of servicemen of WWI (please see also How to find information on German soldiers from World War I and World War II?)
Please specify your question (name, time of duty, e.g. photos), maybe secondary literature ...
3
You can find a listing of the census records that are available online in the FamilySearch Wiki article Germany Census.
The definitive work on German Census records is Roger Minert's book German census records 1816-1916 : the when, where, and how of a valuable genealogical resource. You can find more information and locate a copy using the links below.
...
3
Here is a bit of supplemental historical information about the town from the Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich (The Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic Countries) :
In the 19th century, its Polish name was Frydrychowo (basically the Polish translation of Friedrichsbruch), although it was ...
3
Much of the advice given in the previous question Tracing US ancestor back to Germany? will also apply to this question -- in this answer I will add information specific to immigrants to the US during the early 20th Century.
The first thing I do with any research question is to start with a review of all the records I have collected so far. I make a list ...
3
Have you sought out his tombstone? Jewish tombstones when inscribed in Hebrew will often give the father's first name as in Moritz (possibly Moshe in Hebrew) son of the honorable ______.
2
In general, a good starting point is often the FamilySearch Research Wiki page for the place you are interested in.
In the case of Lübeck, the FamilySearch Research Wiki page for civil registration shows that indexes and images for births are available for the period 1811 - 1875, which covers your period of interest.
The page for church records shows that ...
2
If he was Protestan/Lutherian you could try https://www.archion.de/en/
It is an online archive of the german protestant churches, where you can find a lot (albeit not all) church records.
1
If I am correct from the following it is clear that although Gottlibe Schidt, was German, he was however not a German soldier, but and English soldier. Which I think therefore answers your question.
Gottlibe Schidt Born 1761, Death 2 April 1819 aged 58
King's German Legion - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_German_Legion
1.
The King's ...
1
Although difficult to find, I found original records for 4 great uncles (all became Catholic priests) and a great aunt, all of whom were born in Magdeburg, and a marriage record for their parents, my great grandparents between 1870 and 1886 on ancestry.com. It wasn't a straight forward search since it was not indexed by my great grandparents names but only ...
1
The Verband deutschsprachiger Berufsgenealogen is an association of professional genealogists, see their member list. With the search query Berufsgenealoge (= professional genealogist) you'll find more using Google.
Some have advanced knowledge on German-American ancestry, so check their profiles and geographic/thematic areas.
1
I'm assuming that the birthdate of 1826 for Xavier Rebholz came from the record below which confirms that he was a Mason.
"Minnesota, Death Records, 1866-1916," index, FamilySearch
(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XP6M-X21 : accessed 05 Dec
2014), Xavier Rebholz, 09 Jul 1891; citing Minneapolis, Hennepin,
Minnesota, Public Health Center, St. ...
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