Question

german data re frieherr vd Joachim Osten-sacken b1878;to usa 1905; 1st data is nyc wedding 1910?

Comments

For those who are interested in answering this, the person being asked about is https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Von_der_osten-Sacken-2

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As stated on the profile, Joachim's WWII draft registration card gave a birthdate of 4 Oct 1877 in St. Moritz, Switzerland; his WWI draft registration card, however, gave a birthdate of 25 Oct 1877.

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he was not careful in filling out form? there is data in usa via

marriage, census,draft cards, death. but unable to find any data on family in germany or his time in military there or his

residence there. i'm unclear how there is no data on him of likely family in germany......or how to proceed.

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It is claimed (apparently on the basis of family records) that Joachim Herbert Sacken was a descendant of the noble family of von der Osten-Sacken, and specifically of Johann F. H. von der Osten-Sacken.

This is a real noble family (see brief English Wikipedia article and much more extensive German Wikipedia entry), with both a Prussian branch and a Courian branch (in what is now Latvia) many of whose members entered Russian services.

For the Prussian (i.e., German rather than Russian) branch, there exists a long genealogy in the Jahrbuch des deutschen Adels (volume for 1898), with children through the early 1890s listed. I have gone through the genealogy, but found neither a Joachim born in the late 1870s nor a Johann of the right age to have been his father.

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At this point I think the best bet would be to add the tag "Switzerland" to your question, to see whether someone who knows sources in Switzerland can point you to where one might find birth records from 1877 in St. Moritz.

In general, sources for both East Prussia and Courland are very spotty (there was a lot of destruction of records in both WWI and WWII), and what has survived has often not been indexed by the Mormons (and thus cannot be found via familysearch.org or ancestry.com). Thus, without knowing exactly where in East Prussia (or Courland) to look, it will be extremely difficult to find his family.

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thank you for checking the jahrbuch. i had asked amateur genealogist who suggested, with no data in germany or usa prior to marriage at 32,......his story may not be true. there is much minor family data that seems to hold together in a narrative but no data.  joachim did not maintain contact with his family after marrying so no direct knowledge via family here. thanks suggestions.