Sunday, February 8, 2009

Einwohnerverzeichnis for Marienburg 1938/39

An Einwohnerverzeichnis is a list of inhabitants names and addresses in a town.

In the 1938/39 Einwohnerverzeichnis for Marienburg we find eight listing under Porsch. It's in the Gothic German print. So with the aid of a Gothic print sheet and a german translation site this is what I've come up with.


Porsch
FIRST NAME OCCUPATION ADDRESS
Bruno - Urb., Breussenster 47
Gust. - Schreibgeh / ?Scribe, Ulmenweg 10
Hilda - Um., Topfertor 7
Joh. - maurer/bricklayer, Gneisenastr 9
Johann - Urb., Gtr. 25
Julius - Zugfuhrer / Conductor Ulmenweg 109
Karl - hausdiener / hotel servant, Welsch Gart 11
Marie - Ww., Preussenstr 47


I'm not sure what Ww., Um. or Urb. stands for. Ww. might be Widower. I'm off to find out.
I note that Gust. and Julius both live on Ulmenweg, but it may be a way apart. It'll be interesting to find out how many are related to each other. Only time will tell.





























Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Porsch - Coat of Arms


The Porsch coat of arms is in the top right hand corner.
This illustration is from the Siebmachers Wappebuch who wrote two heraldic multivolume book series of armorial bearings or coats of arms of the nobility within the Holy Roman empire including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

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

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

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.




Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

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