BADEN-WURTTEMBERG-L Archives

From: "Carla Heller, M. A." <>
Subject: [B-W] Helps for Pinpointing Ancestral Locations :-)
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 10:20:01 -0800

Dear Baden-Wuerttemberg List Friends,

For those researching German ancestors, it is often very frustrating to
try to pinpoint ancestral localities, or even verify that one is
searching for the *correct* place name.

If you are seeking an ancestral location, you'll want to research it
carefully to see whether there is (or was):

1. MORE THAN ONE LOCALITY BY THAT NAME in Germany. For example, it's
important to know that there is a "Frankfurt" in the state of Hessen
[Frankfurt am Main], as well as a "Frankfurt" in in the state of
Brandenburg [Frankfurt an der Oder]. Identically-named localities are
common in Germany---and are often in different parts of the country,
such as the two Frankfurts.

2. A LOCALITY IN FORMERLY-EXISTING OR RENAMED STATES: Don't forget that
some parts of what *used to* be "in Germany" before one of the World
Wars are now in completely different countries (such as Poland, Czech
Republic, etc.). In addition, some former German states no longer exist
(such as "Prussia," once a very large German kingdom encompassing
territory in both western and eastern "Germany"), or are now known by a
different or modified name. For example, Baden-Wuerttemberg is a
post-World War II 'combination' of the previously separate-for-centuries
states of Baden, Wuerttemberg and Hohenzollern.

3. A LOCALITY WHICH HAS SINCE MERGED WITH A NEARBY PLACE: Your
ancestral locality may have become part of a neighboring town in more
recent times, and is more readily identified now by the other town's
name (a very common situation, especially for small villages). The
search results provided by GeoServe (see below) usually will note
whether such a merger has occurred, with the words, "Part of [Town X]"
included in the text.

4. A LOCALITY WHOSE NAME IS SPELLED VERY *SIMILARLY* TO ANOTHER
LOCALITY'S NAME: This can be tricky. One of my ancestral towns is
D-i-e-d-e-s-h-e-i-m, Kreis ["county"] Mosbach, Baden. Before I got more
familiar with German geography, I confused "Diedesheim" with
D-e-i-d-e-s-h-e-i-m---a completely different place, not in Baden, but in
the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, and I later confused Diedesheim with
D-i-e-d-e-l-s-h-e-i-m, which is in Kreis Karlsruhe, not Kreis Mosbach,
Baden. These names look nearly identical, but if you read them
carefully, you'll notice there are three *different* names.

Also be aware that there may be archaic *spellings* for place names,
such as "Wuertenberg" or "Wirtemberg" for the more modern
Wuerttemberg/Württemberg. In this particular case, they refer to the
same place.

It is also easy to confuse the suffix "-berg" with "-burg" in German
locality names, two *different* German words respectively meaning
"mountain" [Berg] and "fortress" [Burg]. Note that these separate words
are *not interchangeable.* If you think you're looking for a
"HeidelBURG," or a "FreiBERG," for example, you may not find much
information about them until you realize the correct spellings for each
(Heidelberg, Freiburg).

5. A GERMAN STATE NAME WHICH IS SIMILAR OR IDENTICAL TO A GERMAN TOWN'S
NAME: Many of you have experienced the confusion, for example, of the
*state* of Baden with the *town* of Baden [the latter called Baden-Baden
since 1931]. For basic help with that issue, you can see my Web page on
the subject, "Which 'Baden' Is Which?" at
http://home.earthlink.net/~mscarlah/ .

6. GERMAN-LANGUAGE PLACE NAMES WHICH ARE VERY DIFFERENT IN ENGLISH OR
OTHER LANGUAGES: Did you know that the German state we call "Bavaria"
in English is known as "Bayern" in German? Or that the region of
"Alsace-Lorraine" in French is "Elsass-Lothringen" in German? Would you
recognize the German names "Deutschland," "Schweiz," "Frankreich," and
"Österreich" as Germany, Switzerland, France, and Austria? Be sure to
make yourself aware of any 'foreign aliases' by which your ancestral
town or country may be known. [I once titled a travel class essay, "When
Lunchin' in München, Please Don't Eat the Wieners" (i.e., "When Lunchin'
in Munich, Please Don't Eat the Viennese.") München = Munich, the
Bavarian city; Wien = Vienna, the capital of Austria---and "Wieners" are
people, not hot dogs.] :-)

* * * * * * * * * * *

Foreign location names can be checked fairly simply---with good online
maps (such as at MapQuest or Expedia), geographical name searches using
email (like GEOServe), and databases like Shtetl Seeker----the latter
will even display names of places that SOUND similar to the name you've
entered, and help you find a map to see the placement of the location to
determine it's the one you want.

You may want to visit the following Web sites for instructions and more
information on basic geographic searches:

Arthur Teschler's GEOServe
(the Web page gives instructions----note that the SEARCHES are conducted
by quick-return EMAIL, however---this search engine is limited to
localities in Germany only)
http://www.rootsweb.com/~deurhepf/geoserv.html

JewishGEN's ShtetlSeeker
Database of *European* geographic names, even for many tiny villages and
hamlets (searches are performed on the Web page; *NOT* limited to German
locations or Jewish 'shtetls')
http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/loctown.htm

MapQuest
(to find and display a map showing your location of interest)
http://www.mapquest.com

Expedia Maps
(to find and display a map showing your location of interest)
http://maps.expedia.com

Hope this helps!

Wishing everyone the best research success,

Carla HELLER, Los Angeles, California USA
List Co-Administrator, ROOTSWEB'S Baden-Wuerttemberg Mailing List

This thread:

• [B-W] Helps for Pinpointing Ancestral Locations :-) by "Carla Heller, M. A." <>