[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Wjasowich, Wohylnien

[Earl Schultz]

Nancy, the Witzke surname caught my eye as I'm sure it has also caught the eye of several others on this listserve.  There is a small group of SGGEE members who are connecting with DNA between Lublin and the Rypin area parishes.  One of the surnames that many share is Witzke and we are hoping that we can link these people together using that surname.  I don't know if you have done an autosomal DNA test, called Family Finder at FTDNA but that would be a good way to know if you also belong to these Witzke descendents and if so, it may give us, and you, some clues as to where to look for further records.

If you decide to take the test and can transfer your results to Gedmatch so we can compare it to others, then we'll see what we can learn.  I can help you with that process off-line if you write to me or you can send me your Gedmatch # and I will make sure the other Witzke researchers check out the results.

Thanks and good luck in your research.

Earl

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Message: 4
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 19:59:14 -0500
From: "Nancy Cramer" <gglbs at sccoast.net>
To: "'Kate Wertmiller'" <kwertmil at gmail.com>
Cc: ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Wjasowich, Wohylnien
Message-ID: <DA2A349367B0476C80E24AE2DB273BA4 at newuserPC>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="windows-1251"

Hello Kate, 
I want to thank you so much for responding to my plea on this list.   I have
been searching for any Witzke family who could be descendants of my GreatGrandfather, Gustav Witzke for many years and you are really the only ray of hope I have found in a long, long time.

 I have looked at the document on pages 168 and 169, but I only speak English so therefore, I could read none of it.  Wish there was a button on my computer which would translate it for me!

I don't know of any Adolfs or Rudolf Witzke's that were in my family but that doesn't
mean that they were not related.    I do know that my Great Grandfather
Gustav Witzke
was married several times.   He had several children but I think that his
younger children were step children.   His oldest child was my Grandmother,
Matilda Witzke born 1893, Albert Witzke born 1894 and Hulda (or Hilda) Witzke born 1895.  All three came to the USA in 1910 and 1911 and I knew all of them.
 
Then the next child was Richard (Richart?) Witzke.  He remained in Russia
and married someone named Ida and they had 5 children.   At some point,
Richard and his family moved to Omsk, Siberia.   In 1931, Richard and Ida
and their 5 children were living in Omsk.  I have a copy of a translated letter from him to his sister, Matilda.  
It even contained an address in it and I wrote a letter in English, German and Russian and mailed it to that address explaining that it was in search of Family History, but I did not receive a reply.  

The last Witzke child was Olga Witzke, who was blind.   There were several
younger
children but I do not know if they carried the Witzke name.  He spoke of them in letters as if they were his own, but they may have been stepchildren
to him.   Helmut,
Regina, Jonathan.  
 
In the last letter written from Gustav to his daughter, Matilda in 1931, he
and his wife (perhaps Amanda?) were living with another family.   The letter
had been translated as Daniels but I don't think that is a German surname, so it could have been Brendels.  

Thank you in advance for any information you can share with me.   

Sincerely,
Nancy Cramer    
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