[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Using 'Kartei Quassowski'

[DAVID B OBEE]

I have the full set of the Kartei. I bought it from an antiquarian bookstore in Germany about five years ago.

I don't think people should get their hopes up regarding what might be found in the series.

Bear in mind it was published by the group that specializes in East Prussia and West Prussia, and that  the vast majority of references are from sources there, not from regions that were in the old Polish lands.

Bear in mind also that we should not get wildly excited to find that the Quassowski index includes surnames also found in Plock, or Chelm, or Zhitomir, or whatever. German surnames will be found in lots of German places. A few years ago I spent several days in Salt Lake, going through Polish microfilms and making notes of the names I considered to be the most notable from my Volhynian communities of interest. I found the names -- even the ones I had assumed to be rare -- in many different areas. The fact that those names appear in the Kartei covering East Prussia and West Prussia as well would come as no surprise.

Dave Obee