Lost Estates
Replies: 2
Re: Lost Estates
 birchyj
(View posts)
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Posted: 3 May 2008 9:45PM GMT |
Classification: Query
Cathy, I'm going to be referring to the edits you made at http://www.birchy.com/GenWiki/index.php?title=Community_of_F..., as well...
Freihof/Niewolno was an estate and it's village on the road just north of Tresmessen/Trzemeszno, Kreis Mogilno.
This is the first instance that I've heard, of someone's name changing like that (specifically). My best guess is that the Freihof "germanization" occurred in the latter rounds, in the late 1800s, and that the original Polish name was used except for say around 1880 to 1919. Your ancestor's family probably got their name from the estate, not the other way around.
Hutta tresmessen, btw, was 1.5 mi NW of Freihof. I will add a map to the above article after I post this reply.
As for Jews in Freihof, these would have been in Tresmessen proper in 1905, but there was probably less than a quarter mile between the two places.
As for losing an estate, when it happened would be helpful for guessing a reason. Throughout all time, estates were bought and sold, inherited and leased. Bad luck and poor management threatened every estate. But there were also efforts to convert Polish estates to German ownership. The Reich set up a commission to snap up Polish estates and resell them to Germans, and legal and social pressure was applied. Poles created financial and social associations to combat this and other anti-Polish measures.
Of course, after WWI, it was very difficult for Germans to keep their property.
Assuming your ancestors were German and Protestant, Tresmessen had a Protestant church from 1845, when it split off from the one in Witkowo, some 10 miles to the SSW. Witkowo existed from at least 1790. Gnesen to the west (about 10 mi. also) existed from at least 1804.
James Birkholz
(admin Posen mailing list and website)
Freihof/Niewolno was an estate and it's village on the road just north of Tresmessen/Trzemeszno, Kreis Mogilno.
This is the first instance that I've heard, of someone's name changing like that (specifically). My best guess is that the Freihof "germanization" occurred in the latter rounds, in the late 1800s, and that the original Polish name was used except for say around 1880 to 1919. Your ancestor's family probably got their name from the estate, not the other way around.
Hutta tresmessen, btw, was 1.5 mi NW of Freihof. I will add a map to the above article after I post this reply.
As for Jews in Freihof, these would have been in Tresmessen proper in 1905, but there was probably less than a quarter mile between the two places.
As for losing an estate, when it happened would be helpful for guessing a reason. Throughout all time, estates were bought and sold, inherited and leased. Bad luck and poor management threatened every estate. But there were also efforts to convert Polish estates to German ownership. The Reich set up a commission to snap up Polish estates and resell them to Germans, and legal and social pressure was applied. Poles created financial and social associations to combat this and other anti-Polish measures.
Of course, after WWI, it was very difficult for Germans to keep their property.
Assuming your ancestors were German and Protestant, Tresmessen had a Protestant church from 1845, when it split off from the one in Witkowo, some 10 miles to the SSW. Witkowo existed from at least 1790. Gnesen to the west (about 10 mi. also) existed from at least 1804.
James Birkholz
(admin Posen mailing list and website)