Brandenburg
Research List Archive 981
- BRGRL-981 -

Webmaster' Note: Wilkersdorf was in kreis Königsberg and is now Krzesnica, powiat Chokna, Poland; but no FHL microfilm appears to exist for it under either location name. Becker is a very common surname, translating to baker here. However since you do have a specific location in the former German Empire, after you search the IGI, the Ancestral File and the FHL surname location section (there are listed) for any Becker surnames from there, you might try your surnames in Die Ahnenstammkartei des Deutschen Volkes on FHL microfilm - a three step process.

Comment by Siegfried RAMBAUM of Ithaca, New York, USA (eMail address: siram@lightlink.com)

You should not be too surprised that no microfilmings exist for that location. Wilkersdorf had no churches. The Lutherans belonged to the parish of a neighboring village named Zornddorf. If you have access to Archiv fuer Sippenforschung, volume 10, issue 4, April 1933, you would find a cross reference list of the Lutheran church books in the Brandenburg province. Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York also has the bound volume of 1933, and it is available by Inter-Library Loan. The parish affiliation of Wilkersdorf is in the April issue 1933, pages 97 through 141. Though much of the stuff listed in that index has been lost in 1945, it nevertheless is a useful reference, as it tells you what you would have to look for when searching for church books.

Many churches in some villages were also serving neighbouring smaller villages. The index also is interesting in one respect, as it tells you about church books that were already lost in 1933, and how they were lost. And if something was lost in 1933 already, then you can give up all hope for it showing up unexpectedly after 1945. Other than that, Wilkersdorf in Kreis Koenigsberg i.N. (this "i.N." is important, as there is another Koenigsberg in Prussia -- in East Prussia, though -- which is also a county seat) is located in a region that to Germans is much better known under the name of "Neumark"...

Is there a genealogical mailing list dedicated to this region? Unfortunately, the mailing list is in German language only. But then, names and places do not hinge on languages to have them ring a bell with you. The mailing list archives can be found at http://www.ecircle.de/circles/Neumark-L Howver, to have access to those, you need to be subscribed to the mailing-list and use your email-address as a user id and a password that will be sent to you, when subscribing. To subscribe, send a blank email to Neumark-L-subscribe@ecircle.de

The Neumark-Listers are very active in extracting all genealogically relevant information from whatever sources they can lay their hands on. So you possibly might want to check out the many regional (i.e. for counties, professions, towns) indexes that have resulted from that mailing list so far. They can be found at http://home.t-online.de/home/Neumark-L Good luck on your research.

Webmaster's Note: Falkenhagen and Seegefeld Evangelisch church records (1659-1804, 1806-1874) exist on 5 reels of FHL microfilm. There is a Schoenebeck in Saxony near Magdeburg and another in Pommern - Pomerania.

Webmaster's Note: Please contact Genealogy Unlimited in Utah and Travel Genie Maps in Iowa for the maps you are looking for.

Webmaster's Notes: Stettin (now , Poland), on the Oder River that has divided Germany from Poland since the 1945 Yalta aggreement, was Berlin's seaport from the early 1800's until World War II. However Sweden controlled the part of the German province of Pommern west of the Oder River from the treaty of Osnabrück - circa 1648 - the end of the 30 years religious war - until the early 1800's, roughly the time of Napolean's north European adventures.

Sweden thus controlled the five major north German seaports for over a century after the 30 years war (from Wismar east) and this included Stettin. It was negotiated as part of the Osnabrueck treaty (probably to blut the possibility of any invasion of its homelands). Thus for a seafaring family, moving from Sweden to Stettin was really no big deal, and probably a matter of accepting a job. So you best start searching Swedish records now. I know of no reason to believe the spelling of the Stetler surname should have changed from Germany to Sweden, especially since Stetler has no diacritical marks.

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Webmaster's Note: Forst en Lausitz is located in Brandenburg, Prussia and several FHL microfilm collections exist of some of the town's churchbooks. You best determine Oswald's religion before you start a serious search. Try checking the IGI (International Genealogical Index) and the Ancestral File at your closest LDS Family History Center. Then try Ahnenstammkartei des Deutschen Volkes.

Webmaster's Note: Of the 28 citations of the Fenner name in the Surname Search section of the FHL Catalog, you might want to check record #19 - from Belzeg (sic) Brandenburg. There is a Belzig, Brandenburg for which Evangelische churchbook records (1805-1872) exist on 5 reels of FHL microfilm. For Gartmann, there are two citations pointing to Graubünden (Graubuenden / Graubunden), a Germanic part of Switzerland.

Webmaster's Note: You do not mention the religion, but the only FHL films I see are for Jewish records at Wittstock.

Webmaster's Note: With the extreme brevity of your submission, and the subsequent absence of all vital dates of those listed above or of their unnamed children and with no religion listed, it is not possible to answer your question in the manner in which we would prefer. Furthermore we find no location named Kremlin in Brandenburg, although there is a location named Kremmin.

Webmaster's Note: While no church records appear in the 17th CD ROm edition of the FHL Catalog, there is a 1914 city dirctory, 1860-1916 military records, 1833-1922 Jewish records and a gazetteer on FHL microfilm for Luckenwalde, Brandenberg, Germany.