Place Names --how does one find old European place names of nations, regions, counties?

+8 votes
175 views
In searching for my German ancestors, I believe that I must search for the names of certain areas that were used in a particular person's era. Where could a fairly comprehensive list of those names be found, such as Prussia, Alsace-Lorrianne, Pale of Settlement, and more? This "place names" problem seems to be a very specific brick wall. The eras might include all names prior to WWII back through Medieval times.
in Genealogy Help by Living Berg - Hilse G2G4 (4.8k points)

3 Answers

+5 votes

Try doing a google search for any of those subjects in your question. 

For example:    Pale of Settlement wikipedia

Pale of Settlement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement

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Wikipedia

The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a western region of Imperial Russia, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish ...

History - ‎Jewish life in the Pale - ‎Territories of the Pale - ‎See also

Talk:Pale of Settlement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3APale_of_Settlement

 

Another topic mentioned:  Midieval Prussia map

Prussia (region) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia_(region)

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Wikipedia

The territory was probably identified as Brus in the 8th-century map of the ... Medievaldepiction of Prussians killing Saint Adalbert, the missionary bishop; part of  ...

Old Prussians - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Prussians

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Wikipedia

The Prussian tribes in the context of the other Baltic tribes, ca. ... name of Prusa (Prussia), for which an earlier Brus- is found in the map of the Bavarian .... Medievaldepiction of Prussians killing Saint Adalbert, the missionary bishop; part of the  ...

Etymology - ‎Organization - ‎History - ‎Notes

Prussia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia

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Wikipedia

In the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military ... At the Congress of Vienna (1814–15), which redrew the map of Europe  ...

Teutonic Order - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_Order

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Wikipedia

4.1 Foundation; 4.2 Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary; 4.3 Prussia; 4.4 Livonia; 4.5 Against Lithuania ... Formed at the end of the 12th century in Acre, in the Levant, themedieval Order played an important ..... Map of the Teutonic state in 1260.

 

You may want to try doing a search for Alsace-Lorrianne / or for  alsace lorraine médiévale

It may be necessary to translate to English. 

by Frank Gill G2G Astronaut (2.5m points)
THANK YOU!!!!
+6 votes
Unfortunately there is no comprehensive list of the sort you are looking for. The easiest way to find a time-specific place name for me is to start with the modern-day city or village on Wikipedia and work my way back through time. This is best done through the German Wikipedia as it is more comprehensive than the English version when it comes to German towns and former settlement areas.
by Helmut Jungschaffer G2G6 Pilot (595k points)
One thing I discovered that ended up saving me a lot of that effort was to look at WikiTree's categories under Regions.  I often find places in Germany that I'm looking for listed there and, just as often, find the correct place name to use instead of the one I had gotten from some source.
Thanks, Helmut, Most of the place names I have are tiny villages, and sometimes they do not seem to be placed around central larger 19thc cities, such as KARLSRUHE and FRANKFURT. It seems that very many of the place names could be "just across the border into. . . " but I then wonder which border, and how long was it that border.
If you give me the names of the villages I can see what I can come up with.
+5 votes

I have researched relatives in Prussia and Slovakia, and have found this site very useful; type into search engine:   Time Maps which is part of World History Outline. (hope it is OK to give the name of this site)

 What you must do is to look at the map and remember visually where the place is located on the map (say, Prussia). Then, as you skip to the page that is closest in time to when your ancestors lived there, you remember visually where that place was on the map.

I think I made this sound more complicated than it is, but I understood your question immediately.

TFYQA

 

by
This seems very useful --Thanks!

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