When I was growing up, I was given a vague idea that my maternal grandmother’s mother wasn’t Dutch like the rest of my mother’s family, but German. Once I began to search my family history, I quickly saw that the records were Prussian, not German. That still sounded German to me. (Before you tell me there didn’t used to be any such thing as “Germany,” but rather German states, I know that, but they were “German,” to my mind).
My Prussians were quickly my worst brick wall, and although I picked at the threads of the mystery a bit over the years, I didn’t accomplish too much until a couple of years ago. That’s when I found some records for the births of my great-grandmother’s siblings. This was a short-lived accomplishment because my great-greats may have moved around for work, so I still had no idea which province of Prussia they were from. Without that knowledge it is impossible to find their birth and marriage records. To find their parents and grandparents.
Very recently I began to piece together enough information and knowledge to theorize that my relatives were actually from Pomerania, which was the part of Prussia which bordered the Baltic and is now in Poland. I even wondered if they were from northern Pomerania, right near the sea, and even more, from Slupsk or that vicinity. The place names on documents are garbled and there are versions of each place in several languages, but a doc seemed to indicate Świecichowo (Polish) or Schwetzkow (German). This town is in Slupsk County. I explain this doc here. I felt confident enough to present this theory on this blog, but I’ve been busy so I didn’t write that blog post.
Then something else happened. I went onto my Ancestry DNA “headquarters,” and looked up the new and more thorough ethnicity info–specifically for my mother since her maternal grandmother was the Prussian. And guess what? I don’t have to theorize any longer. Ancestry has done that for me. According to Ancestry, my mother’s Prussian Ancestry is precisely NORTHERN POMERANIAN and NORTHWESTERN POMERANIAN–and if you look at the map, most likely the Slupsk region. Furthermore, the reason Ancestry can fine tune to this region is that Mom’s ancestors lived in that area for many years.
I had to look up Slupsk, of course. From Wikipedia:
Słupsk (Stolp, in German) had its origins as a Pomeranian settlement in the early Middle Ages. In 1265 it was given town rights. By the 14th century, the town had become a centre of local administration and trade and a Hanseatic League associate. Between 1368 and 1478 it was a residence of the Dukes of Pomerania, until 1474 vassals of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1648, according to the peace treaty of Osnabrück, the town became part of Brandenburg-Prussia [and was under Swedish military control (Swedish dominion)]. In 1815 it was incorporated into the newly formed Prussian Province of Pomerania. After World War II, the city again became part of Poland, as it fell within the new borders determined by the Potsdam Conference.
In a nutshell, the area was Slavic tribes, then Polish, then Swedish, then Prussian, and after WWII Polish again. This is with little blips of time as German and Danish.
It’s very satisfying to feel this close to finding Gottfried and Alwine (Noffke) Waldeck’s origins. Maybe before too long I will find their birth and marriage records.
The Family Kalamazoo 
Well done!
Sent from my iPhone
Thanks, Barb!
What an enormous puzzle!
It sure is!!!
Fascinating, Luanne. So many mysteries continue to be solved in the puzzle that is your genealogy, right? I go back to Ancestry DNA updates every once in a while – I love the refinement process!
Thanks for this interesting post!
It’s a good idea to keep checking not only on the matches, but on the ethnicity estimates. They are getting better and better at that, I think.
That’s really cool that Ancestry could narrow down to that area from DNA.
It just shows that once they get enough people with the same backgrounds, they can get it more precise.
Wow – very exciting. I love when we have breakthroughs like these. Still working on my brick walls. Going to go check my DNA for any update clues. Great post Luanne!
Fingers crossed for your brick walls hah. Yes, definitely keep checking the DNA as they refine their estimates more and more!
Great work, Luanne! So does that mean this line was ethnically Polish rather than German? Good luck as you continue to search!
Now that is the $64,000 question. Bottom line is there is no way to fine tune it beyond N and NW Pomeranian, most likely, because that area was under so many different flags that it’s bound to be a very mixed ethnic group. Add to all I wrote there that there is no doubt some Viking in there, since they were on the coast! There is definitely Swedish in the mix because it was swedish for 200 years of fairly recent history in a genetic sense. But in the general, I can answer that. Ancestry is putting Pomeranian squarely under Polish, and I don’t think it’s because the area is Polish today. Historically, the area was probably more Polish for long periods of time than anything else, and the group was slavic to begin. In fact, the ethnic group they were part of still exists and is called Kashubian. Kashubians today still may speak Kashubian, which is similar to Polish. However, I’ll bet most Americans of Pomeranian heritage probably think they are German-American. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashubians This all brings me back to when I first got my 23andme DNA results and they identified a gene that is very specifically Polish. I was floored at the time. On another note, most Pomeranians were Lutheran. They all converted to Lutheranism around the same time (which would be a minority religion in Poland, as Kashubians are considered a minority ethnicity in Poland). According to google, in 1933 there were 7800 Jews in Pomerania, including in Slupsk which at that time was called Stolp. Another bit I picked up is it looks like the reason Hitler invaded Poland was because Germany and Poland were fighting over Pomerania, especially Gdansk (Danzig).
Sorry—I am just seeing this reply. (I am still not really able to focus on anything for much time, and I am really struggling to get back to my blog.)
This is all fascinating. That part of Europe—eastern Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.—were always under shifting governments, and borders were always shifting as well. It sounds like you are getting a pretty good handle on the specific ethnic/religious group that your ancestors came from. And yes, Hitler wanted another port on the North Sea as part of his overall plan to take over the world. Sounds like history is repeating itself, doesn’t it?
Kudos on your progress, Luanne!
Thanks, Liz! I gotta get cracking on our project :).
You’re welcome, Luanne! 😉
Well done, Luanne!
Thank you, Clare :)!
🙂
You must be getting excited about what you’ll find next! You’re hot on their trail.
I am! I can’t wait!