[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] introduction

[Reiner Kerp]

Hello, fellow searchers.
As it takes too long waiting until I4ve completed reading the archiv of your
list, I already now want to introduce myself.
I4m Reiner Kerp, born in 1943 at Bergisch Gladbach near Cologne. Me and my
wife Ingrid nee Grohnert are living in Bavaria, southern Germany. We have
two daughters, a son and two grandchilds.
Since I4m retired some years ago, from being a soldier in the German Air
Force, I have time enough for my hobby: Genealogy. Searching for my own
ancestors is very easy because everthing is reachable (see
http://reiner-kerp.de). The search for my wifes ancestors is difficult. She
was born at Ko:nigsberg/Prussia which now belongs to Russia. Because of WW
II she didn4t only loose her father but her homeland as well. Surprisingly
many of the older church-records of East-Prussia are saved on LDS-films.
Nevertheless search still is difficult.
I4ve joined this list because I4m hoping for help on the search of my
mother-in-laws ancestors. She, Else nee PEPEL was born in 1913 at Zdunska
Wola near Lodz (Poland). Her father came there after 1886 from Rudzk Wielki
near Sompolno (Poland, but Russia at that time) with his parents and two
brothers. The family was evicted from Poland in 1911. Elses parents tried to
stay, but had to flee on start of WW I. While the others found the right way
to west, my wifes grandparents took the wrong way to East-Prussia, running
completely into theWW II desaster.
Starting my search with no knowledge in Polish or Russian at Sompolno, I
found just a desert. No entries could be found in the IGI. So first, I tried
to learn the needed Polish words. This was and is very, very hard. Thinking
about how others could take advantage of my work, I copied a big, big number
of records. When I begun to transcribe the records, I learned from my fellow
searcher Art Lauf (Edmonton), that Al Muth already had done everthing I
planned. As being no member of the
S G G E E, unreachable for me (my budget for genealogy is limited).
Nevertheless, if somebody wants scans of the marriage-records of the
Sompolno-parish between 1840 and ca. 1862, I4d gladly provide.


kind regards,

Reiner


mail at reiner-kerp.de


P.S.: GEDCOM follows later