[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Hildebrandt family name

[Jerry Frank]

Welcome to the mailing list, Erwin.

Charlie Hildebrandt (I think now deceased) of Morden has done extensive research on Hildebrandts from Volhynia.  Not sure about how to tie into this research.  Perhaps John Marsch or others on this list can help with that.

If you browse around our website enough, you will find clues about the what and where of Volhynia.  We had a full hour session on it at our convention a couple of weekends ago.  Very simply, Volhynia was a province in the Polish / Lithuanian empire prior to the partitions of the late 1700s.  After that, it was a province (sometimes referred to as Gubernia) in Russia until WW I.  From 1921 through WW II, it was split in half with the east being in Poland and the west in Russia.  That probably explains why your father states he was born in Poland.  After WW II, it ceased to exist, being split into 3 districts in Ukraine consisting of Wolhyn, Rivne, and Zhitomir.  Wolhynien is the German spelling.

I recommend you have a look at the book, Historical Atlas of East Central Europe by Paul Magocsi for an overview of how boundaries changed over the past 2 1/2 centuries.  I'm sure it would be available in the Winnipeg Public Library.

An Oblast is a government district the equivalent of a county or municipality.  See also http://www.sggee.org/VolGub10.pdf   

If you become a member of SGGEE, you will have access to our Journals which will fill in a lot of the detail regarding your questions.


Jerry Frank



----- Original Message -----
From: Erwin Hildebrandt <ehildeb at shaw.ca>
Date: Monday, August 25, 2008 8:01 am
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Hildebrandt family name
To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org

> Hello
> 
> I am new to this group and am curious about my family 
> history.  My  
> grandfather was Friedrich Hildebrandt and he owned a farm with a 
> mill  
> in Korist Kreis Rowno.  I would love any anecdotal 
> information about  
> what kind of man he was or any of the Hildebrandts.
> 
> Another question:  Can someone tell me what Volhynia 
> is?  Its not a  
> country.  Is it a province or a regional name?  I have 
> also seen it  
> spelt Wohlynien.
> I also have a map of Wohlynien where the word Oblastj appears 
> all  
> over, for example: Oblastj Rowno.  What does Oblastj mean?
> 
> Last question:  My dad has always claimed that he was born 
> in Poland  
> but it appears Korist is in the Ukraine?  Which is right?
> 
> Thank you for any information
> 
> Erwin Hildebrandt
> Winnipeg, Canada
> 
> 
> 
> 
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