Stagecoaches in Pomerania in 1811

Heinz Radde, a man of German descent born in Pomerania who now lives in Switzerland, has just sent information on a map he recently discovered. The map is of the stagecoach (postkutschen) network in Pomerania in 1811, during the Napoleonic era. Heinz is likely a distant cousin of mine. We are both subscribers to a [...]

Herman & Pauline

Here’s what I found on Saturday while researching at the public library using Ancestry.com. I decided to delve into the lives of Herman Lentz and Pauline Fromke. Information from the 1930 census has that Herman immigrated in 1883, but I am having a hard time finding him in any of the databases. There should be [...]

Brothers and Sisters

I’d never given much thought to my great grandparents’ brothers and sisters. But I am hoping that finding them will help in the search for information on their parents. All I’ve had for years was names: Carl Fromke and Caroline Radde & Ludwig Lentz and Marie Scharnofske. A few years back a couple in Montana contacted me about information [...]

Fromke, Framke, Froemke, Frumpke

Logging into one of many Ancestry.com accounts to access free Civil War records, I noticed someone had sent me a message. It was regarding a family with my mother’s family name Fromke. They lived in Pottangow, Pomerania, while my ancestors lived to the south, about 50 kilometers away, in Borntuchen and Grobenzien.  (I can never remember my [...]

My Great-Great Uncle August L. Fromke

My great-great uncle August L. Fromke was born in August of 1873 in Germany. After immigrating to South Dakota in 1887, he married Anna L. Radtke, probably in 1898. She was born in April of 1875 in Wisconsin. In 1900, they were living in Grant County, South Dakota, near August’s brother, Albert August Fromke, my great [...]

The Thun & Milczewski Families

A few years back a couple from Montana, John and Liesel Hingst, came across some of my genealogy queries and sent me a lot of information on my mother’s ancestors, most of which I’d never known. The Hingsts had been working on an English translation of a book on Kreis Bütow. (Kreis Bütow was a county in [...]

Heinz Radde’s Site on Bütow & Pomerania

Heinz Radde, probably a distant relative, is a German man from the region of Pomerania. He currently lives in Switzerland. He has some great material on his site about the history and people of the area, including a timeline of major events. I am focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries because I am not sure [...]

Family Name History

I came across a Family Name History feature at a site called nameLab, so I decided to lookup a few surnames. VAN NOTE Americanized spelling of Dutch Van (der) Not, a habitational name for someone from a place called Ter Noot, for example one in French Flanders. VAN OORT 1. Dutch: habitational name from any [...]

German Explorer Gustav Radde & the Two Heinzs

Searching for the surname Radde at Wikipedia I discovered a German naturalist and explorer named Gustav Radde (1831- 1903). I am a descendant of some of the Radde clan on my mother’s side. It is, or was, a relatively common name in the Stolp area of Pomerania (Pommern). It’s now known as Słupsk. I started [...]

History, Genealogy & Genetics Mailing Lists

Here are some of the mailing lists that I manage. Most are related to genealogy and some about genetics. My mother’s family was named Fromke and was from Pomerania, an area south of the Baltic Sea. They came from Kreis (the German equivalent of a county) Bütow, which is now in Poland. Among the surnames [...]