My Genealogy Research

About my research and the sources that guide me

I enjoy exploring the history of my ancestors and the times they lived in. I gather my data from old records such as birth certificates, marriage certificates and death certificates. My grandfather Böldicke already laid the groundwork here. As a diligent teacher, he collected all kinds of family records long before we were even a thought. This hobby demands a lot of time and patience, and my search for ancestors probably won't be over anytime soon.

I write inquiries to parish offices, or sometimes search the Quassowski card index at Göttingen University Library. In that same library I also found an important and fascinating book by H. Hugo about the villages of Tarmow and Hakenberg. My Rönnefahrts have their roots in Tarmow. And of course the internet has opened up a whole new dimension of genealogical research — on FamilySearch, for instance, you can view various parish registers.

Hoping to find the tiniest of clues, I've also visited every place in the Berlin and Ostprignitz-Ruppin area that appears in our family chart. Or rather, I wanted to stand on that ground myself, to see how the land presents itself there — after all, our ancestors lived there for centuries.

The Böldicke family, as far as we can trace it back, originates in the village of Kränzlin. Our Rönnefahrts, on the other hand, lived in Tarmow for centuries.

The Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin also holds records important to me. It took several weeks before I got a reading spot — the demand for appointments there seems enormous. The sheer amount of material at the EZA overwhelmed and impressed me. I was able to compare and confirm several entries in my family chart, though I was probably too excited to search as methodically as I should have. Better preparation definitely pays off.

Many of my ancestors were settled for centuries in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district; others in East Prussia and Silesia. Researching in East Prussia and Silesia is considerably harder. I'd therefore be delighted about any lead on the names Böldicke, Lilischkies, Heidemann and Lilienthal.

"In genealogy, a step backward is a step forward."
(Source: unknown)