[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Ratz Family - City/Province of Origin?

[Albert Muth]

I see little here to disagree wtih; quibbling, I see Brzizis as the village
of residence.
But it is still "a mess".  I have no idea what this could be and still be
within the
boundaries of "Sherlitz".  It looks badly mangled; do not place too much
reliance
on spelling or even a reliable phonetic rendering.

I am going to take a stab at identifying the province "Sherlitz".  We are
talking
about the gubernia level, and these are quite limited in number.

In the Kingdom of Poland (Russian Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland)
I refer you to this map:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polska_1907_adm.png

For the Western areas of Russia, I refer you to
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukrchern/chernigov/maps/mapoutline1914.htm

I am ignoring the Volga German region on purpose, as it is quite separate
from the rest of these.

My hunch is that Sherlitz is a badly written version of Siedlce.  Keep in
mind that we are seeing a single word that is filled in to a box.  We need
to imagine the conversation that might have gone on.   The question "What
is the name
of the province you were born in?" would yield a one word answer.
If the question yielded a full sentence, the Ratzes might have answered
I was born in Sherlitz gubernia.  In any case, Sherlitz is AWFUL.

for the pronunciation, open this URL in another window:
http://translate.google.com/#pl/en/Siedlce.%20%20Gubernia%20siedlecka

Turn up the volume on your computer.  In the left box, In the bottom right
corner, you
will see an icon for volume (if you hover your mouse over it, it'll read
"listen").

If you can imagine one of our Germans trying to answer the question of where
he was from to a hostile bureaucrat processing immigrants in New York City,
this might be our place.

Joseph Ratz is a fisherman by profession.  This ought to limit you
to towns and villages on the rivers of that gubernia.

Could the destination be Shawano in Wisconsin?  It's adjacent to Oconto Co.

al muth





On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 1:18 PM, Rose Ingram <roseingram at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Thanks Robin,
>
> If anyone else wants to take a stab at this, the family is indexed with
> the surname of RAK on the Ellis Island website.
> Last residence appears to be Brsizis.  They are to going to brother in law
> in New York.
> And yes, the family is from Province of Sherlitz in Russia.
>
> Rose
>
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Robin
>   To: Rose Ingram ; ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org
>   Sent: Friday, May 17, 2013 6:59 AM
>   Subject: Re: Ratz Family - City/Province of Origin?
>
>
>   Hi Rose,
>
>   Attached are the two pages about the Ratz family from the passenger list.
>
>   Here is the general information:
>
>   New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
>
>   Ship Name: Konigin Luise
>   Arrival Date: 30 July 1899
>   Port of Departure: Bremen
>   Port of Arrival: New York
>
>
>
>   The Ratz family are the first six on each list, but their names do not
> appear on the passenger list supplement page. For reference, their names
> are Joseph, Anna, Natalia, Hermann, Emil, and Heinrich.
>
>
>   Thank you!
>
>
>
>
>   Robin Prigge
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>   From: Rose Ingram <roseingram at shaw.ca>
>   To: Robin <alphaf1 at yahoo.com>; ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org
>   Sent: Friday, May 17, 2013 12:36 AM
>   Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Ratz Family - City/Province of Origin?
>
>
>
>   Robin
>
>   Can you give us a link to the webpage with the passenger list?  What
> year did the family emigrate?
>
>   Rose Ingram
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     From: Robin
>     To: ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org
>     Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:08 PM
>     Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Ratz Family - City/Province of Origin?
>
>
>
>     Hello,
>
>     My Great-Great-Grandfather, Joseph Ratz, and his family were Germans
> who, according to the passenger list, were subjects of Russia. However, I
> am having trouble reading the names of the city and province from whence
> they came. It looks like they came from a city named Brzezie, in the
> province of Sherlitz. ???
>
>
>     Does this sound familiar to anyone? I am open to suggestions. Thank
> you!!
>
>
>     Robin Prigge
>     _______________________________________________
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>     Ger-Poland-Volhynia at sggee.org
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