[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] dialects as an indicator of area of origin is general

[Nancy Gertner]

Verna:

The dialect may be an indicator of origin,  but the area indicated by  
the dialect(s) could be very large, so that may not be very helpful  
for pinning down the origin, especially if you want to get it to one  
parish where you can look for church records.

Swabish could indicate that the area of origin is southern Germany.   
Low German could be Plattdeutsch, from West Prussia or Posen Province.

According to Reuben Drefs, who has transcribed thousand of records of  
land ownership from the census of 1772/3, many of the settlers to  
Bessarabia and Volhynia moved from the Wongrowitz area of Posen.  One  
of the early and large parishes in Wongrowitz was Schokken, which has  
church records that go back to 1645.  I have looked at the Schokken  
records, and have found a strong correlation in surnames found in  
Schokken and Bessarabia and Volhynia.  Because my ancestors emigrated  
from Posen Province to America in 1866, I have not personally found  
any specific family correlations from Schokken to Bessarabia or  
Volhynia.

I have personally found the land records transcribed by Reuben Drefs  
to be an excellent tool for pinpointing the area of origin for my  
ancestral families to the 1772/3 era. By doing surname searches at  
the Odessa website suggested by Carolyn, I looked at the list of  
"returns" when searching with "PRussia/Poland" and determined the  
"most likely" area for my ancestors and ordered the microfilm for  
this parish from LDS.  With this method, I scored a "bullseye" on my  
first shots.  I was fortunate in that the surnames that I was  
tracking were relatively "rare" and had a low number of "hits."

Of course, people moved around and didn't always stay put, and the  
church established new parishes as the population grew, so I've also  
found my ancestral family in church records of nearby parishes (from  
the bullseye center) during the years before their immigration.

I think a more scientific way to pinpoint the origin of your  
ancestral families is to use the surname method.  Your message  
references the year 1907 and 1913, but not the endpoint years for the  
fourth generation back, which is your endpoint that you are trying to  
track beyond.  If you would specify the surnames you are tracking, I  
could check my notes from Schokken records and my GEDCOM file and  
tell you if I think your families might have origins to Schokken or  
West Prussia, using the research I have done for those areas.

Through membership in a society or organization, you have perhaps  
made contact with other researchers.  Because families typically  
migrated together, the neighbors of your ancestors could also provide  
clues of origin, along with the church records.  The death records of  
the ancestral family members that died in Bessarabia and Volhynia are  
the ones that might provide place of birth.

Nancy in Minnesota
Researching families:  Fischer (not rare!), Deutschmann, Gartner,  
Grams, Hamann, Hannemann, Hochbaum, Jahnke, Jesse, Mallas,  
Sonnenburg, Ziemer

On Feb 6, 2006, at 9:59 PM, Verna Hutchinson wrote:

> Hello List:
>
> I've been fortunate  through the kindness of genealogists,in Europe  
> & Canada
> to further my ancestry
> back another 4 generations. I started out with only  paternal  
> Grandparents
> arriving in Canada 1907 from Lutzk Volhynia
>
> My maternal Grandparents arrived here in 1913 from Bessarabia.
>
> I am now trying to find out where the ancestors immigrated from,before
> arriving in Volhynia & Bessarabia .
>
> The Bessarabian Grandparents spoke either low German. or Swabish.
>
> The Volhynian Grandparents spoke a German closer to what the minister
> spoke,which I thought to be high German
>
> Would knowing the right dialect help in finding the area that the  
> families
> originated from?
>
>  Thank you  Verna