I Started with the Verlustlisten- WW1

My Grandfather was born into a poor farming community in Wrotkow, Poland on 14th October 1897. He died in 1968 when I was 7, He did not speak anything of the WW1, so for me Finding history has been
like trying to do a jig-saw puzzle without any of the pieces, all in a different language and not even the box lid with the full picture as a guide.

Even if he was prepared to talk 'War stories' it would have been impossible given that he spoke, Polish, German and French.
I used English and it was just English for 7 year olds.

His Brother was killed in the Argonne Forrest in France in 1915. Whilst looking for clues I found the internet has many leads.

The Verlustlisten is a database of German WW1 casualty records. It has recently been completed so for me searching and finding Gold !!

So I keep finding many interesting parts of a Jig-saw puzzle and keep adding them to my box of clues, trying to make them fit. Some fit very nicely but others go back in the box for later.

Of course they may be entirely the wrong pieces and not even belong to my puzzle.
But it is a most addictive detective search.

I am sure I will be here a while.

 

Welcome Martin, good luck with your searching.

 

Thank you for the tip, I had not come across the Verlustlisten before and immediately found an unknown family member, Friedrich Geleick from Cranz, Ostpreußen. More research to add to the list.

 

Hi Heather and Rhian.

The indexers have only just finished adding the scans and transcriptions so I think it is now complete.
I should have added a link. I use Google chrome which auto translates web pages.

http://des.genealogy.net/eingabe-verlustlisten/search?lang=en

 

I never thought that I would be looking at scans of 18th Century church records for my Ancestors in Deepest Poland but everything becomes possible.

http://poznan-project.psnc.pl/

http://www.basia.famula.pl/en/

 

The Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. site is full of interesting oddities. I use the Ortsfamilienbücher (OFB) a lot, it is pages of parish and civil records arranged by town or village, some in the 17th century or earlier, possibly more useful for Preußen than Poland.

 

My Maternal Grandfather was born into a family with a history of rural shoe and boot making in the small North Staffordshire village of Fulford. He was born in May 1900 and was too young for WW1.
Researching this side of my family has been much easier but just as rewarding.

The bits of the puzzle are mostly in English and there are far more tools to help with the investigation.

My Maternal Grandmother is descended from the Staffordshire Potteries
The Pratt family were operating in Lane Delph ( Longton, Fenton and Stoke-On-Trent ) from late 1700's.

 

I began my researches in the 1950s in Takapuna, New Zealand. I was interested in History from a very young age, especially what I could glean of my family history. You can imagine how difficult it was then to have access to much relevant material - just the standard reference works in libraries but these did at least provide the occasional lead especially to grander members of the extended Powell family. Things got better when I moved to the UK in 1975 and had the chance to use the archives in London. My regular Phys Ed consisted of humping around those great volumes of BMD indices at Somerset House and queuing to use the research facilities in Portugal Street. Now I learn as much in an hour on-line, even at our snail pace speeds in rural Wales, as in a month or more of rushed lunch hours in London. I joined the Society of Genealogists in 1975 and this was a real eye-opener, with its lovely South Kensington setting. The following year I joined both the Herefordshire Family History Society and the Radnorshire Society, having discovered that my Powell roots lay in this westerly direction. The climax to my researches was a the confirmation in 1991 by the College of Arms of my right to bear both the arms of Llywelyn Crugeryr and Rhys ap Gruffydd (Yr Arglwydd Rhys). I look forward to finding some of my many still missing cousins behind the Atlantic Wall proportions of my brick walls. Best Wishes to all.

Tref1

 

Welcome Tref1 and good luck your research, my grandfather was from Wales, one of thousands of John Edwards, trying to find his military record is a challenge. Our son-in-law is from Auckland, a beautiful city.

 

Dear Heather,

Thank you for your words of welcome. My 99 year old father, ex BEF veteran of France, N Africa and Italy, still lives in Auckland and we try to go over every year to see him and other family members. Good luck with John Edwards!

Regards,

Tref1