[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Belin, Poland

[godivademaus at gmail.com]

I finally located my great-grandmother’s Notice of Intention to Seek Citizenship. I knew that she was German, born and raised in what was at that time Russia, present day Poland, and on an earlier document it was just generally represented that she was from Warsaw.


Her Notice of Intention does state that her birthname was Caroline Tetts, born in Belin, Poland, but she did not know her date of birth, although it is estimated on later documents that she was born about 1885.


I can find no record of the names of her parents. On the ship’s manifest of her passage on the SS Patricia arriving 20 Jul 1906 she indicates as her destination to be Chicago Illinois and states she will be staying with her “cousin” Edward Edelburg. She married Edward Edelburg in Oct of 1906 so they became my great grandparents.


Edward’s brother, Wilhelm “William” Edelburg arrived in the US 30 Mar 1912 on the Roon and lists as his last city of residence “Bielin” Russia (different spelling) and gives his father’s name as Johan Edelburg.


Again, I find no records of Wilhelm or Edward Edelburg or their father, Johan from Poland, only records of arrivals and post-arrival documentation.


Edward Edelburg arrived in 1900 and listed as his final destination as Chicago, Illinois and also listed his last residence as Bielin, Russia and as his family here in the US as a “nephew” Michael Gronke.


When I looked up Belin, Poland, there is something on Google earth that shows up approximately 40 miles NNW of Warsaw… but there’s literally nothing there. There are some houses on a main road… scattered as though it were a 4 corners rural place, but literally the “Belin” that is listed is out in the middle of pasture-land.


Belin, Poland shows up in Wikipedia as a village in the administrative district of Gmina Nowe Miastro, within Płońsk County, Masovian Voivodeship in east-central Poland. No information is given with regard to population, size, demographics. It’s as though the village disappeared.


Does anyone generally have any information regarding the town of Belin, Poland and what happened to it?


Would anyone have any connections to the Edelburgs, Tetts or Gronke families from that area?


Any suggestions as to a specific links I can go to perhaps obtain further information on these individuals are gratefully received -- but I’m writing more because of my curiosity about the village.


Thanks,


Lauren Gessler

Shelton, WA