SURNAMES IN GERMANY

Phonetics

In Germany names were spelled phonetically. Over the several generations a surname can change. For example Porsch could be spelled Porsch, Borsch, Porschke, or Busch. Also it depended on whether the writer used high or low German. Each village developed their own dialect. the farther the person was away from their village the more chance of the name being spelled differently.

Sources: LDS website, A Geneological Handbook of German Research, Chapter 7: Analyzing surnames and placenames

MERTINS Johanna, birth record

I found this birth record in the same name as my great grandmother Johanna Mertins, born in Dirshau, 24 June 1888. Her Taufen name is Helene Johanna Grethe. I can't make out her father, Friedrich Wilhelm's, occupation.

Passenger List for Helmuth Porsch

Soundex - Busch, Pusch, Borsch, Porsch

I read that Busch, Pusch and Porsch are usually the same name. It often depends who is writing the name and if it is high and low german.

Of course I didn't save the link and will have to try and find it again.

Protestants leave for Prussia. 1731

1731 expulsion order results in up to 22,000 Lutherans settling in East Prussia.

Perhaps this may be important to PORSCH family search.

In the course of the long Catholic-Protestant struggle waged throughout Europe between the Reformation and 1800, none had so decisive an outcome as that waged in Salzburg, now a south central province in Austria. Because the local ruler was Catholic, there was intense pressure on all Protestants (e.g. Lutherans) throughout Salzburg to either convert to Catholicism or to leave Salzburg. Very few Lutherans were willing to convert, and in 1723, 30,000 Lutherans fled Salzburg. Then in 1731 Roman Catholic Archbishop Count Leopold Von Firmian issued his famous "expulsion order" which ordered all remaining Protestants to leave Salzburg immediately. The entire Protestant population was immediately expelled from Salzburg; a total of 22,000 men, women and children. Some three hundred of them emigrated to Georgia in the American colonies, but the bulk of the emigrants settled in the other Lutheran principalities, especially in east Prussia. In later years many of their children and grandchildren became 'delayed' emigrants to America. This important volume (never before published in English and never microfilmed) for the first time ever brings researchers the original lists of all 22,000 expelled, with full names (even including wives' maiden names) and ages of everyone involved, coupled with their village of origin, and giving family relationships if the surnamewas different. It also includes an exact reference to the unpublished archival records which in turn give an incredible wealth of further details, including occupation, all possession owned at the time of expulsion, who bought them and at what price, etc. All in all, we believe this is the largest, most complete, and most detailed immigration list ever published.

They list BUSCH, PUSCH, PORSCH,

http://www.pictonpress.com/store/show/494

PORSCH:

I found that great map at the FEEFHS The Federation of East European Family History Societies.

Helmut Porsch and his Ancestors were from Dirschau, Danzig. A later record shows his father Julius as a Zugferer. As Dirschau was a major railroad connection perhaps that is what he did there.

The link is http://www.feefhs.org/maplibrary/german/ge-wprus.html

Map of Prussia

Found this great map of West Prussia