Assistance needed wth identifying the birth location WWI draft card

Question

Greetings, 

I had information that my Polish great grandfather was born in Königsberg, however I just came across his WWI draft registration card filled out in 1917 in Jersey City, NJ; I cannot make out the location in Russia, despite numerous internet searches. Here is the link to the image: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZJJ-V9Z

Thank you. 

Comments

Mary Beth, United States records often list Russia as the birthplace for pre-1917 immigrants from any country that was part of the Russian Empire.  Many of my relatives came from Lithuania, but after they came the US records all show them as from Russia.  You're lucky - most of the US records I've seen don't show a town or state - they just say "Russia".

Sorry I can't help figure out what this draft record says, but several others have already taken a good stab at it.  Since you identify your great grandfather as Polish, most likely the country was Poland, which I would describe as "City, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire." in the biography and show in the data section as "City, Poland, Russian Empire" (using the Russian language for it).

Answer 1

Might be Krolow in Poland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Królów

Comments

Thank you. I thought that at first, but from what I understand the place is still in Russia and I couldn’t attach the second part of the name to the first.

Answer 2

Hi Mary Beth, I clicked on the link and then the photo of his draft card and it let me enlarge the photo. You might want to try it!

Best I can make out the name is; Krulowe Kahester, Russia

List of renamed cities and towns in Russia

 

Comments

Thanks. Yes I did enlarge it but with all the letter combinations I didn’t come up with anything. Was that a link to a list and were the names on it? The link didn’t work for me.

Answer 3

Hello Mary

I searched the possible names of the place of birth in russian and there is no any place I could find. But the name sounds quite like polish — the word "Krulowe" means "queens" and in the second word I am not shure, but I can assure you it can't be russian at all.

Answer 4

Dear Mary Beth,

I have tried to find such town as Krulowe/Królowe/Królewiec. I would say that there is mistake in the name of "state". According to me the name of town is Królewiec . Possible two locations:  https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kr%C3%B3lewiec_(wojew%C3%B3dztwo_%C5%9Bwi%C4%99tokrzyskie)

and 

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kr%C3%B3lewiec_(Ukraine)

Both in XIX/XX were under Russian government.

However you wrote that Joseph Ostrowski was born in Königsberg - are you sure ? If yes - it could be current Kaliningrad  (in Russia) which was renamed after IIWW. But in 1915 it was German Eastern Prussia. Regards.

Answer 5

There is a strong probability that the name of the city is Krolewiec which is the Polish name for Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), The following link gives a detailed view of the history of the city of Konigsberg prior to 1945. 

Konigsberg - Wikipedia

The Partitions of Poland is also a very interesting read if you are interested.

Partitions of Poland - Wikipedia