Where is Preusen, Posen, Prussia now?

Question

Morris Samuel b. 1818-1820 Preusen, Posen, Prussia. (Samuels-520)

This is all I know about the birth of my Gt Grandfather, who emigrated to England and was there by the early 1840's.

Can anyone tell me where Preusen, Prussia is now and how I find Jewish records from there?

Thank you,

Mary Samuels Blundell

Comments

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

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Thank you Vincent, I don't know why I didn't think to go to Wikipedia myself.

Thanks for your help,  Mary Blundell

Answer 1

Preußen in 1700.

Preußen at it's largest size 1866 - 1918.

With respect to records from Posen one has to distinguish between the city of Posen, now Poznań, and the Prussian province of Posen. The state Archive in Posen publishes an index of church books, UNESCO a list of destroyed or damaged records.

The Arbeitsgemeinschaft ostdeutscher Familienforscher e.V. (AGoFF) has a Forschungsstelle Posen. The Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin has some records, as does the Martin Opitz Bibliothek.

The Verlag C.A. Starke publishes the Deutsches Geschlechterbuch, the volumes for Posen are ## 62, 78, 116 and 140.

Comments

Thank you Helmut, I have checked these places since you put them up, but no sucess.  Thank you very much for your detailed answer though.

Mary Blundell

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Oh wow! Great resources. Do you have any special resources for Schwetz, Gross Leistnau, or Gross Ottlau?

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The best site I've found is westpreussen.de

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Thank you Kat for your answer, Unfortunatly because the family I am researching is Jewish it's very hard to find records.

Thanks again

Mary Blundell

Answer 2

Prussia was the core country involved in the development of the nation of Germany in the 1870.  Prussia was bigger than Germany is today as it included part of Poland and part of Russia.  So in today's world, Germany, Poland, and part of Russia used to be the Kingdom of Prussia.  So you have a lot of territory to cover to find the records you need.

Comments

Thank you for your answer David, much appreciated. Mary Blundell

Answer 3

Prussia = whatever Berlin is the capital of.  Modern Germany is the New Prussia.

Comments

Thank you RJ Horace, I've been reading it up on Wikipedia.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Mary Blundell

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RJ, I know tons of Germans who would take exception to the notion that they are "New Prussians". Animosity to Prussia runs deep in many parts of Germany, particularly the South and the Western parts, those that became Prussian after 1815/1866.

Answer 4

Preußen is german for Prussia.

The city Posen (Poznań) was part of Prussia between 1793–1918 and was part of the province also named Posen. Both are now part of Poland.

Comments

Thank you Norbet.