Written by Daryl Weishaar and Joan Benner for the Marquette Co WI Pages
To properly direct any genealogical inquiries, you must know more about the country and specific location your ancestor came from. For example, telling someone that your ancestor came from Prussia is like saying that he settled east of the Mississippi River in the 1800's. Prussia includes much of a large mass of the territory on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. Between 1668 and 1817 the country that is now called Germany was more that 300 independent states, city states, bishoprics, duchies, and more, some just a bit larger than a postage stamp, with the exceptions in size, places like Bavaria. There was no central government. Residents "belonged" to their little countries, which in some cases had two or more areas separated by other "countries". They received orders to populate an area and were sent to start new towns, usually along a border, to ward off invasion. To support the governments of such tiny holdings, the merchants had to pay taxes in every tiny independent country they went through, whether by land or river, while traveling across the land to deliver goods, making goods almost impossible to afford. Religion of an area was often designated by who was the royal leader, and changed as easily. Churches were the primary, often only, keepers of family and individual information starting in the 1500's. Most people worked in agriculture, for larger land owners as tenants. The lucky ones had tiny private farms that would not sustain a family , and at the age of 10 years, children began to work alongside their parents to supplement family income. Napoleon's invasion ca. 1805 resulted in a reduction of the number of independent Germanic "nations" to 36. That was the status until Prussia, over a few decades, "united" those states and today's Germany was formed in 1871. Prussia, also "Preussen" and "Borussia" in old records, also claimed parts of Poland, Romania, Ruthvenia, and other formerly independent countries. Today, there is no Prussia on maps. Prussia is a name that has been applied to almost 60% of the German Empire at one time or another. Prussia includes much of a large mass of the territory on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea from approximately 1850 to World War I. From 1701, the Kingdom was ruled by the Hohenzollerns, with Berlin as the capitol. There were more than three dozen duchy's under Germanic control, including the following: Brandenburg Electoral Hesse Hesse-Nassau Mecklenburg Poland--portions of Pomerania Posen Rhineland--portions of Saxony Schleswig-Holstein Silesia Thuringia Westphalia and the Duchies of Burg, Cleve, Crossen, Engern, Geldern, Juelich, Magdeburg, Stettin and Wenden and Cassubia and others that were smaller in size. Smaller than a Duchy are the church district, which often encompassed several villages. It is helpful to become familiar with German terms like state church, serf and elector, perhaps more. A German dictionary and/or the German language list in the LDS Guide to German Research are important tools. Church district is Kirchenkreis. Stadt, means town, as in BrombergStadt, the city, in the County of Bromberg and the administrative district of Bromberg, similar to the Posen, Posen, Posen. The kirchenkreis (commonly mis-named "Kreis-Stadt") was the most important because that is how records were kept in the early 1800s. 1817 was the year that Friedrich Wilhelm III combined the Lutheran and Reformed denominations into Evangelisch. It helps when doing German research to have an understanding of Prussian history, and what was happenning during the critical emigration years of 1850-75, and that Prussia only officially controlled western Germany after 1871 as the First Reich. See the map of Germany in 1871 [supplied by Daryl Weishaar]. Those emigrating before 1850 had mostly two motivations: economic disaster as the Irish Potato famine spread, and religious freedom issues, the Prussian Union church vs the several centuries-old state supported "Old Lutherans" (Evangelische), and the conservative factions squeezed by the mandated mergers of the current kaiser. Brandenburg was ruled by the Hohenzollern family in the Teutonic knights since after the crusades, although they also held smaller ancestral territories in West Germany. At the invitation of Polish knights they helped to subdue "native peoples" of Latvian type called Prussi, and were given control over that land. They built castles and colonized the land. Unrest led to expulsion of the Teutons, but a treaty in 1460 left them with what is called East Prussia, thus Brandenburg-Prussia was born. It evolved into a Duchy under Albert of Hohenzollern who also disbanded the knights who became the land holders in both areas. Albert of Hohenzollern also declared Brandenburg-Prussia to be Lutheran, since the head of state designated a state church. That didn't please the Catholics, but that was life in the 1500s to 1800s. John Sigismund, a Hohenzollern and good administrator came to power in 1618, and his grandson Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg, secured ducal Prussia's independence of Poland in 1660. Note that by this time there was a system of seven "electors", a higher title than duke but short of "king" who were responsible for naming the "Holy Roman Emperor" to whom all were supposed to be militarily supportive. Frederick-I got the pope to agree to his being called King in Prussia in 1701, and he shortly changed that to King "of" Prussia. ("Kings get more respect"). That is another "milestone" of the rise of Prussia as a military power. Creation of the Prussian Union church from the previous Reformed (which the kaiser was) and the "Old Lutherans" (which his wife was) became a religious freedom and doctrinal issue that resulted in emigration of many "Old Lutherans" in the 1830-40s. Prussia's state church had been "Old Lutheran" since the reformation, but the heads of state had turned Reformed. This mandated consolidation into the Prussian Union that forced emigration was a major factor in creation of the two most conservative Lutheran groups in America, the Missouri and Wisconsin synods. All because he wanted to go to communion with his "Old Lutheran" wife in her church and the "Old Lutherans" wouldn't let him. They didn't practice altar and pulpit fellowship with the Reformed or anyone else, including the kaiser if he didn't qualify. "German" stiff? Yes. Strong doctrinally? Yes, also. More than most others. It didn't help that the Kaiser enforced the merger (he wrote three variations of liturgy, none of which pleased everyone) using police, something his successor backed away from, but it was too late then. The timing coincided with the opening of America where the kaiser didn't tell you how to worship and you could buy as much land as you could afford, a huge step forward from being able to even buy a little land at all. So the "Old Lutherans" gave him a salute (probably not the official one) and many left. Wisconsin immigrants prior to 1860 numbered many "Old Lutherans" among them, and they were responsible for organizing the eastern Marquette County axis of Lutheran churches besides filling in from Milwaukee northward. Prussia was also exceedingly militaristic, from their Crusader roots, from about 1250 AD onward. It took about 600 years to achieve control of the German states--Denmark in 1864 to secure two NW provinces, Austria in 1866, France in 1870, all of those to demonstrate to the other states that Prussia was 'the best leader'. The frequent wars that were part of Prussia's rise to prominence over the previous 200 years, AND the taxes that went with that, were another major cause of emigration. Germans had formerly sought "Lebensraum" (living space) by Germans moving into Poland and Russia for more room, but the system of war and taxes to pay for the military unceasing and ever increasing. By 1850 emigration was beginning to replace the colonization of the former years. Our ancestors chose to leave everything familiar and to come to America for a variety of reasons, the most common being a combination of over-crowding, high taxes, nearly continual war, some crop failures and the potato famine spreading through Europe, religious matters, and to allow their children to avoid the new compulsory military service.A good encyclopedia (old-fashioned paper version or Compton's/Brittanica electronic version) and look for Prussia and German topics in it Enlightened Despots from Time/Life Books Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition (1946) or later ones(?). Excellent sections on the settlement of America, state by state, and a time-line of major history events from 1492-1814. Finding Your German Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide, by Kevan Hanson, ISBN: 0-916489-83-3 Deciphering Handwriting in German Documents: Analyzing German, Latin, and French in Vital Records Written in Germany (2001). Written by Roger P. Minert, Ph.D., A.G. ISBN: 0-967842-07-7. West Prussian Information Pages An impressive collection of links relating to German genealogy can be found on the Washington Co. WI rootsweb pages. A History of Prussia by H. W. Koch For Marquette Co. area Prussian ancestors, Prussian Netzelanders and other German immigrants in Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara counties, Wisconsin by Brian Podoll is a must-read. A list of English names of German States is also available, compiled from a variety of sources by Joan B., webmistress of this site. After you have the specific ancestral place name in Germany, Meyers-Orts, LDS fiche numbers 6000001 - 6000029 This gazetteer of place names in the German Empire 1871 - 1919 is in German and Gothic Type, but well worth consulting for place name information. The LDS FHL catalog of Germanic resources is organized according to these pre-WWI place names and geographical boundaries. When you are ready for advanced research and have a good understanding of Prussian history, the Latter Day Saints (LDS) have microfilmed (and are still microfilming) many church records of the former German Empire. You may be fortunate enough to discover records for the location your family emigrated from, among them. It has been suggested in articles and books written about Marquette Co Prussians, that many were from Posen--County Kolmar. Paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 were written by by Rita Neustifter and gathered from multiple creditable sources, including the 1881 Compton's World Atlas; History of World, P.F. Collier, Publisher 1887; and Einst Handelsweg Zwischen Bayern und Böhmen, heute anderweg: Die Gulden- oder, Von Ingeborg Seyfert, 1959, among others, by Rita Neustifter. 
German Genealogy Sources for Beginners that Others Have Suggested
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