POST 9 Original Surname Sort

NEXT STEPS

My original search on Ancestry.com produced 242 results and 23 locations. Where in East Prussia were they?

First, I numbered my entries so I could try to put together families by locations and dates.

Some of the locations or “Event Place” as they are referred to are German names, some are in Russian. So, you go to have Parish Registers, Kartenmeister, and Atlantic Bridge, etc.

See

https://suwalkigermans.wordpress.com/2020/01/31/post-r4-print-and-online-maps/

https://suwalkigermans.wordpress.com/2020/02/03/post-r5-online-and-print-gazetteers/ 5

You want to see the original language.

In record 5 the Russian name for Insterberg is given. My knowledge of history and previous research helps me as I knew that there was a Spurgat there in 1736.

https://suwalkigermans.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/post-r7-additional-secondary-sources/

On the far right you can select the image.

Original Sort

Below is an image of the original sort with 242 names and multiple locations, some of which I already knew.

I made an alphabetical list of the 23 locations (except for those records where the locations were not given. Perhaps after I got locations and families, I could match some of them.)

I used Kevan Hansen’s Parish Registers to find the location, the Kreis, and the FHL film numbers.

This filled in 16 locations.

Two locations were in Part II of his series which I do not own, so I went to kartenmeister.com or genealogie.net to get the name of the Kreis and then to FamilySearch to get the film numbers.

I was left with 5 unlocatable parishes.

I checked again in Kartenmeister.com and Genealogy.net.

In the GOV part of genealogie.net I found Krasnoznamensk.

Then I googled Wikipedia or Google maps.

I found Mayakovske (Nemmersdorf) on Wikipedia. I knew where it was as I already had records of Spurgats there from FHL microfilm. As of February 2020, one set of parish records was still on microfiche and one set was digitized but available only at a FHC or the FHL.

I found Yasnoe/Yasnoye (Kaukehmen) on Wikipedia.

I found Mezhdureche on Google maps.

Lastly, I found Zavety near Mezhdureche on Google maps.

I could also have gone to kartenmeister if my main object had been to know exactly where it was on the google map which you find on kartenmeister. Eventually I will include the maps from kartenmeister as part of my information on each parish I find with Spurgat names. After consulting kartenmeister, I  googled the name and found a Wikipedia article.

It did not matter whether I looked on kartenmeister or Parish Registers, I would not find these parishes because on the Ancestry.com version of FHL microfilm, these were the Russian names!

Next Steps:

From my study of the complicated history of Prussia, New East Prussia, East Prussia, the French Empire, Congress Poland, Suwalki Province in the Russian Empire, and independent Lithuania, I am looking for 8 names on birth and marriage records from 1800 to 1840, the time period that my family most likely went from the Gumbinnen Administrative District in East Prussia to the Russian Empire.

I completed my chart of 23 locations so I could see if there were other FHL films at FamilySearch that were not part of the Ancestry.com collection that I should check for Spurgats. I can also search in those locations for records in other sources, preferably online.

I also can check the Ancestry.com website to see if there are more than 242 Spurgat names.

And I can also work with the other 7 names and follow the same process to find my family in East Prussia before they were in the Russian Empire.