[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Powiat maps of Russian Poland

Nelson Itterman colnels at telus.net
Thu Mar 18 10:10:17 PST 2004


This discussion has certainly gone in every direction and has stimulated
much thought. It brings to point as to where I should list my birth. I was
born in Volhynia in 1924 and have always stated that I was born in Russia.
Since the USSR was formed on December 30th, 1922 should I now list my birith
as the USSR, the SSR of Ukraine and Belarus, or is it still Russia?
Since my last application for a passport allowed me to choose between
showing my place of birth as Russia or the Ukraine, I opted for the Ukraine.
which I now know is historically incorrect. Perhaps someone out there can
shed some light on the subject, or muddy the waters some more.

Nelson
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jutta Dennerlein" <Jutta.Dennerlein at t-online.de>
To: "ger-poland-volhynia" <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 12:25 AM
Subject: RE: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Powiat maps of Russian Poland


> Karl, I recently had a discussion with another genealogist how likely it
> would be that an English speaking Census Taker would write down
> 'Friedrichsburg' when a German immigrant gave his place of birth as
> 'Friedrichsberg' using a heavy German accent and trying to speak English.
> So I just tried to imagine what kind of data you would find today if your
> ancestors would have answered "(Kustanai) Qostanay, Kazakhstan" as their
> origin :)
>
> I think it is a good idea to enter the current country. But then the world
> keeps changing and even your carefully researched data can only be
> interpreted in a correct way if it is dated information. Anyone using your
> data in 50 years time might have the same difficulties locating the places
> if he/she doesn't consider the fact that you entered the data in 2004 and
> that he/she will need an (old) map of that time period to find the place.
> Maybe adding the geographical coordinates would be a good option?
>
> Jutta
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
> [mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org]On Behalf Of Karl
> Krueger
> Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 5:02 AM
> To: Peter Fischer
> Cc: ger-poland-volhynia
> Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Powiat maps of Russian Poland
>
>
> >Secondly, many
> >people that post ancestral information simply put Germany or Poland, etc.
> down
> >as a birthplace. It would be the same as stating North America for any of
> us
> >over on this side of the pond.
>
> >I guess its just a pet peeve of mine
>
> Well that's a pet peeve of mine too but unfortunately many times all we
have
> to go on is what others know, and this may be all they know. If they had
no
> interest in genealogy they would not realize the importance of giving
> specific information. Another good example I see all the time is Germans
who
> listed their parent's death location in EWZ as Russland. When you
translate
> that into our current geography that could mean Russia, Belarus, Ukraine,
> Kazakhstan, and as was just confirmed to me this week Uzbekistan. So at
the
> time, any cities I find in these EWZ records would have been the Soviet
> Union but many times that gives readers little idea of where that location
> is.
>
> To help out anyone in the future using the data I enter, I have been
> entering the current country just so they know where to find this city.
> "Russland" is a vast land where even some genealogists might get lost just
> as many Germans did. "Kustanai, Russland" really tells you nothing but
> "(Kustanai) Qostanay, Kazakhstan" immediately tells how far this family
was
> displaced and where you need to look for this bizarre city.
>
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
>
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