[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Historical questions, and families Gut/Gutt, Hammer/Homer, Wegrzyn

[Bill Fife]

Hi Doug,

After the partition of Poland in 1772, Galicia became part of Austria.  In
1774 Maria Theresa (Empress of Austria) issued a settlement charter inviting
foreign craftsmen to Galicia.   After her death, her son Joseph II issued a
second settlement charter (1781) inviting settlement of the flat lands in
Galicia for farming.  It is this request for settlement that brought large
numbers of Germans to Galicia.  There were several dozen German villages
established in Galicia by these people.



These Villages maintained their German heritage, language, and religion,
throughout their time in Galicia and have always considered themselves as
Germans, even though they may have been Austrian by birth.  These German
Villages continued to exist from the 1780s until virtually all Germans were
moved from Galicia during WWII.



There were some GUTs in Galicia during this time and most of them were
Catholic.



I have some files on Germans living in Galicia during this time.  If you
find some specific dates and places send me a private note and I will see if
I can come up with a match.



Bill





----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Linder" <sggee at ario.ch>
To: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 8:46 PM
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Historical questions, and families Gut/Gutt,
Hammer/Homer, Wegrzyn


> Hello All,
>
> I have been "lurking" on this list for quite a while, mostly because I
> don't get a lot of free time to pursue genealogy.  While my name is
> Linder, that is not my family name.  My father changed his name during
> WWII, as "Adolph Gutt" was not a good name to have.
>
> I've been doing some genealogical work to add to what my family already
> has, although I don't (yet) have specific questions for you all.  I'm more
> interested in the history of the Galacia region and where my family
> originally came from.  It seems almost certain to me that my
> Great-great-grandfather, Johannes Gut, was German and moved into the
> Polish area of Galacia.
>
> Very quickly, my great-grandparents were Anna Wegrzyn and Stanislaw Gut,
> and my grandparents were Mary Hammer and Joseph Gut.  Naturally, over the
> years the spellings have varied a lot: Gut vs. Gutt, Hammer vs. Hamer vs.
> Homer, etc.  My grandfather was born in Tomasgow (Lublin) and my
> grandmother in Lwow.
>
> I am primarily interested in the paternal side of my family and tracing it
> back.  I'm no expert on Polish names, but "Johannes Gut" seems very much
> like a German name to me, and what with all the turmoil in that part of
> the world at the time, I imagine there was a lot of migration going on.
> My grandmother's maiden name, "Hammer", does not sound polish to me,
> either - it also sounds German.
>
> I know that when my grandmother was born in Lwow, it was part of the
> Austro-Hungarian Empire.  She spoke German as a girl and once told me the
> school she attended as as girl (she emigrated to the US in to 1920's) was
> taught in German.  So basically, I'm trying to discover if my true
> ancestry is not really Polish but German, or perhaps Austrian or even
> Swiss.  For the records I've been able to find, it seems that at least the
> male side of my family was only in the Polish region for one generation or
> so.  I want to know where they came from.
>
> My basic question for you is, what might a German-speaking person be doing
> in a Polish area like Galacia around the late 1800's?  What reason might
> they have had to be there?  Of course I suppose they might have just
> decided to up and move, but it seems unlikely as back then people didn't
> tend to just decide to move to another country for no particular reason.
>
> And, of course, if anyone has information or research on a Gut/Gutt or
> Hammer, Hamer, or Homer family in that region, I'd be interested to hear
> from you.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Doug Linder
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