[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Barons & Baronettes

[Günther Böhm]

Lloyd Friedrick schrieb:
> Some old letters from my Volhynian relatives refer to our great great grandfather Gottlieb Thrun was known as Baron von Thrun.
>
> A reference in the Odessa site does list him as an landowner near Stettin in old Pomerania.
>
> My view is that the title Baron in the late 1700 - early 1800 simply expressed the fact that the person was a freeholder of land rather than a member of the Aristocracy of the day.
> Many of the younger members of my family of being descendents of the title and their desire to be descended from Royalty.
> I would like to advise them of lesser expectations from this simple reference in our heritage.
>
> Would others on this listserve help me with this issue of explaining a Baron to my young generation. 
>
> lloyd friedrick in Victoria

Hello Lloyd,
do you consider it possible that he was a *Prussian* nobleman?
In Prussia the title was Freiherr instead of Baron [the latter deriving 
from Latin / Celtic "liber baro" = free man]. A Freiherr was nearly as 
much as a Graf [count] and member of the high nobility.

There was no THRUN at all in the Prussian or German high nobility. - 
Instead lots of THURN [Grafen v.THURN, VALSASSINA, COMO und VERCELLI] 
and THUN / THUNN [Grafen v.THUN und HOHENSTEIN, Grafen 
v.ZHUN-HOHENSTEIN-SALM-REIFFERSCHEIDT / v.THUN-SALM, Grafen THUNN 
v.CASTEL THUNN].

   1. In Jassen  and Klein Pomeiske, Kreis Bütow, Pomerania, a THRUN (no
      nobility) was forester in 1750. In Jassen, Carl THRUN and Maria
      Dorothea THRUN were godparents in 1838, Johann THRUN in 1840,
      Friedrich THRUN in 1860.
   2. In Zukowken, Kreis Bütow, Pomerania, a THRUN family (no nobility)
      lived in 1906.
   3. In Buchwalde, Kreis Bütow, Pomerania, the name THRUN (no nobility)
      existed up to 1945.
   4. In Klein Gustkow, Kreis Bütow, Pomerania, Friedrich THRUN (no
      nobility) was a blacksmith fellow in 1839.
   5. Joachim THRUN edited the book "Informationen zur Familien- und
      Heimatforschung im Kreis Rummelsburg in Pommern" in 2000

Günther