If you are looking in the church records for his ancestors is very often that ambiguous messages, several Lines of the same family name in the same place, identical first names or obviously incorrect names rendered safe assignment difficult. Sometimes there are gaps in the church records. These or similar circumstances force then used to go far in the search. It must be recorded with all carriers to each other they can correctly assign. But even with the most thorough church directory search also involving the neighboring parishes, it is often not detected unclear entries assigned. And it has gaps in other places that can not be closed. Is this now the John found the same as Johann Gottfried and Gottfried in another place? It is particularly difficult with common names like Smith / Meller / Möller, Krause / Kruse Henning (n) g. The difficulty increases again when the family in question had no possessions and not stayed long in one place, as if it comes to agricultural workers who have changed residence frequently. You lose the connection and do not know where next to look for.
In all these cases is to rely on secondary sources that can supplement the parish register data. In GStAPK (Secret State Archive of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin-Dahlem) find this as the main source of Sogn. Praestations tables (PTs).
Praestanda (Latin): what one is obligated to pay, mandatory benefits, and taxes.
The PTs were made by the competent authorities. There were accounts of all income and expenses of an office that the mayor had to submit every 6 years. They were under the name of mid-18th Century to the first half of the 19th Century out. The competent authorities have checked the PTs meticulously. If a magistrate could not properly render an account, his mandate was not renewed. He also had to reckon with tough penalties. The magistrate administered the royal domains, and pulled the duties of the office assigned Villages one. The farmland to be royal serfs reason farmers were required every 6 years, to report whether they were satisfied with the official leadership of the bailiff. Too much disposed troop movement on the fields of the civil servant who unjust sentences for minor offenses or disputes, lack of support for crop damage, burned barns and floods would be the government officials from Kaliningrad through the grapevine and had a stern review triggered. The magistrate had a hand that is administrative (tax office, police, mayor), the other, he had to "manage" the royal domains at a profit. These were often very large estates with a few "outposts", called Vorwerke. The whole thing was hinged using the factory and subject to the Official farmers cultivated their own staff. To such a domain is usually included the brewery and distillery right to own forge and mill (which were often verrpachtet), depending on local conditions and aquaculture, forestry and hunting. The magistrate, often with the rank of Official Council, moved into a yearly salary 150-200 dollars.
The content of the official and then the whole hierarchy down to the gate guards, the maids and the shepherds are found in the table Praestations example, under the regular expenses of the Office listed. On the revenue side are all landowners with their duties which are based on the property size and the relevant privileges. Since then have to find the Cöllmer cöllmischen and Krueger (landowners on private land), the Sogn. High yield (usually farmers, who are exempt from higher taxes from the crowd and work obligations have acquired property rights to their land), but also the Sogn. Eigenkäthner (owners of houses with gardens) and the serfs farmers who farm the land allocated to them to work with given resources (the Sogn trimming). The nobility emerges only when he has acquired formerly cöllmische goods. All data are organized by villages. Depending on how complete the records have survived, there are also lists of craftsmen, Instleuten and arms. Then we obtain a fairly complete picture of the population, ownership and living conditions of a region.
PTs are complemented by the Sogn. Mühlenconsignationen. You can also simply mill lists say. They are usually the PTs in a file attached fixes. In the first half of the 18th Century the Sogn. Mill penalty introduced until the end of the 18th Century has been retained. They wanted at achieving a balanced utilization of the mills. Each village was assigned a specific mill. Every 6 years were all Residents of the villages counted and recorded in the lists. We checked with whether the uniform utilization of the mills still true. In addition, when counting the taxes of the miller were measured. If the population grew in certain places, beyond measure, was redistributed or redeployed or disposed of the construction of a new mill. For each named head of the household here, the members of the household are recorded numerically in the following categories: host and hostess, sons and daughters over 12, slaves, maids, service boys and Marjellens, sons and daughters under 12, the elderly over 60 and men. Children under 12, Old and soldiers (which were often not at home) were not counted as a full person and entered them in special columns. These divisions are in terms of genealogical very revealing.
I used to only written statements from the PTs and mill lists specific locations or names of a few that interested me most. Later I was then annoyed that I missed important information because I discovered more and more that my ancestors are, in principle, with all Cöllmern and pitchers of the region somehow distantly related. It has carried my collecting passion, and my staying power in the painstaking copying the archive. Well, I finished complete Copies of the PTs on. The full-PT transcripts are in any case for publication and could also serve other than scientific research base. Maybe I will soon be online in the data for research purposes provide.
For comparison purposes, research and best PTs I have the Office Grünhoff (about 20 miles north of King Mountain located in Samland), total depreciated. Volume 1 and Volume 2 have just been completed. Volume 3 is in progress. I have found in the volumes and the craftsmen lists and everything, what names contained strictly typed. Last year I had two volumes of the PTs of Cammeramtes Caymen completely written off. Before that, I still believed to be a bit more comfortable and can have only made statements of Schaaken and Waldau. The long term goal is a full coverage of the region Samland. This will take several years of work to complete.
Through my research, particularly in the Samland I now know a lot of names and know where certain families mainly come from how the ownership and relationships were and how they change on generation. In particular the most numerous and profound changes in ownership after the Prussian land reform in the early 19th Century can be better with the help of the PTs . Understand Often the PTs also indications exist for how the ownership, who is Vobesitzer or successor.
have in my own family database is now more than 10,000 records properly associated angsammelt, although not all self-researched, yet a large part. The appearance of local heritage books in Samland has promoted the growth very much. Also, I can through my extensive research, now the property and income conditions of a region and look to a larger time interval. The social relations and economic conditions can well understand and answer many questions easier with this basic knowledge.
If interested I am happy to provide information on family names in Samland (This is the region north of Kaliningrad, which is bordered on the west and north by the Baltic Sea and the Lagoon, south and east by the Pregel by Deime).
inquiries, please contact directly: ViktorHaupt@aol.com
