[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Germans and Poland

[Marlo50]

Bronwyn,  when I sent the original message I had decided not to do any more research on this family but after all
this response and it has helped me to 
understand a little more I am going to try
and see what I can find.  Thank you to 
everyone.  You are great people.
Margaret
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bronwyn Klimach 
  To: Marlo50 
  Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 9:07 AM
  Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Germans and Poland


  Hi Margaret
  ,
  I have copied all the messages on this topic and look forward to reading them!  I recently visited some of my husband's cousins in Germany who were horrified when I said the family were more Polish (from around Suwalki) than I had thought.  Rather a conversation killer as they went into defensive 'We are German' mode.  My husband's sisters born in Poland before WWII insist they are Polish.  'Ah, that is because they went to live in UK after the war, but they are German'.  There is more than a grain of truth in that reasoning, but from my searches to date it seems that quite a bit of Polish blood also got into their line!  Around Suwalki it appears to me the 'Germans' mixed more with the locals than they did in most other places. 

  I have written this after reading just your comment (below) so hope I soon get a chance to read the rest of the discussion!  I'm happy to accept my husband's lot were rather a mixed bunch, and let individuals chose whichever ethnicity they wish!! 
  Kind regards,
  Bron.

   
  On 4/24/07, Marlo50 <Marlo50 at bex.net> wrote: 
    To Otto, Dick, Paul and Gunther, I am very happy to have your replies.  I do
    understand a little better now and I know my mother-in-law would not have 
    liked my questioning her being German since that's what they considered to
    be. Thank you for taking time to help me understand.  Margaret
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Günther Böhm" < GHBoehm at ish.de>
    To: "Marlo50" <Marlo50 at bex.net>
    Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 7:50 PM
    Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Germans and Poland


    > Marlo50 schrieb: 
    >
    > >I have been following this subject and am totally confused.  I am not
    > German, my husband is.  His ancestry is actually Pommern and that is my
    > question.  His grandparents were from the areas of Stolp, 
    > >Rummelsburg, Lauenburg, and who knows where else.  If Germany was not
    > unified until 1871 into one country and his ancestors lived in the area
    > now Poland what were they in the early years?  I can 
    > >only go back to births in the early 1800's but it was in Pommern.
    > What were these
    > >people?  German?
    > >
    > Hello Margaret,
    > if you think of what they felt to be, they were definitely Germans. 
    > Western Pomerania belonged to the Holy Roman Empire since 14th century,
    > Eastern Pomerania (Pomerellen, including Stolp, Rummelsburg and
    > Lauenburg) officially since 1523. But the German colonization of 
    > Pomerania was much earlier. However, the Kashubian language is still
    > alive in the environment of Danzig [Gdansk]. So the ethnic non-German
    > Pomeranians would most probably have felt as Kashubians, not as Poles. 
    > As I told you before, LOHROFF is a genuine German name. It derives from
    > Loherhof, the farm of a peasant who produced Lohe (oak bark) for the
    > tannery. SCHWOCHOW derives from the eponymous village [Polish: 
    > Swochowo], Pyritz district, Pomerania. As a surname it doesn't identify
    > whether its first bearer spoke and felt German or Polish. Of course he
    > must have been an inhabitant of Schwochow (Pyritz was allegiant to 
    > Brandenburg since 1493).
    >
    > Schwochow was first mentioned in 1274. In later 15th century the feudal
    > lord of the village was a von PLOTZKE or PLÖTZKE, relative of the late
    > Landesmeister of the Teutonic Order Heinrich v.PLÖTZKE; later the
    > MITZLAFF family, mayors of Stolp from 1459 to 1460, 1511 to 1539, 1544
    > to 1579 and 1608 to 1610.
    >
    >  From 1459 to 1467 a Nikolaus SWUCHOW [SCHWOCHOW] was mayor of Stolp. So 
    > at least at that time the SCHWOCHOW family must have been German (the
    > listing of the German mayors of Stolp from 1340 to 1945 under
    > http://stolp.de/Stolp-Stadt/Behoerden-Verwaltung/buergermeister.htm ).
    >
    > Günther
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > --
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