I have my ancestor's 1819 Mecklenburg-Vorpomm census entry. It states that she was born in the Lewtzow,Thüronow parish. The only Lewtzow I can find is 100+ miles east near Cammin, and a genealogist has told me that people did not make those distant moves in the late 1700s-early 1800s. He feels that the place mentioned is near Gross Ridsenow/Polchow, where the family lived in 1819. Lewtzow might be smaller than a town; a farm? Still, no luck finding this location. Maybe I am mis-reading. Census snippet is attached -- can anyone come up with a different interpretation of the handwriting?

It's Levitzow, parish Thuerkow. If you go to expediamaps.com you can input Levitzow and it will take
you right to it.

I am quite familiar with this area, so if you need more help, you can write me offline at unfoldinglineages@prodigy.net

Good luck in your research.

Robert Albert

Thank you very much. I see that Levitzow is very near to Polchow and Ridsenow, and that the LDS has records for Levitzow. Your interpretation is much appreciated.
Janet

No problem. Here is a link to a picture of the church in Levitzow:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kirche_in_Levitzow_1....

If you end up having lines that go into nearby Jördenstorf parish are vicinity, I also have some history books written in German that have alot of early history up through the 1970's. Lots of old photos and data on early residents. In one of the books it mentions the town of Levitzow, and likely its namesake, Johann Lewetzow/Leuetzow back in 1304. There were Levitzows and Thürkows of course throughout this area. Not sure what surnames you are working with in the 1800's.

Robert

Here is another link that mentions the town and also shows the mill powered by water and a much newer catholic church in town/area.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukow-Levitzow

It appears that the villages of Sukow and Levitzow have now grown together possibly, hence the listing of Sukow-Levitzow.

Robert

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the nice pictures and information.

The 1819 census gives my ancestor's name as Sophie Bock, nee "Babenoüsch". That's how Ancestry indexed her maiden name, anyway. I haven't come across Babenoüsch anywhere else, and wonder if it was misspelled. Someone suggested that it might be Babenrüsch.

I know only a little about Sophie and her husband, Christian Bock. The census gives her birth date as 6.Juli.1787 in Lewtzow/Levitzow and Christian's as 9.March.1789, in Cammin.
Their children were born at Drüsewitz (1811, 1814) and Depzower Mühle (1819). Christian still lived at Depzower Mühle when his son married in 1848. Sophie was not mentioned in the marriage record so, I suppose she was deceased by then.
Christian's sister or sister-in-law Maria Bock was born 08.Oct.1791 at Cammin.

That's the extent of what I know. I had the LDS film for Depzower Mühle and found the son's birth, but nothing else about the family. The handwriting on the film was difficult to read, so I might have missed something.

Thanks again for helping.

Janet

I see why the indexed the surname that way, but I would say it better reads BabenRüsch. This isn't much better though. I checked my books and in Levitzow/Thurkow I don't see any marriage with the surname in the area.

I would be glad to hear back from you once you get to the church records to see what the surname ends up being. I would make an educated guess ahead of time, although the surname I "think" they may be trying to write down also doesn't show up in my books. If you think sort of phonetically, it could be :
(what they wrote)
Bah-Ben-Roosh or Babenrüsch

and my guess is

Paw-Pen-Foos or Papenfuß/Papenfuss

At least this surname does exist, and I know there are families in the Pommern area and believe that I have run across the name in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and/or Strelitz too. Of course I could be way off here as well. There is a PAPENHUSEN in the area, but that is farther removed from what they originally were trying to write.

Good luck and let me know when you locate the christening record for Sophia Bock, nee ....whatever! :)

Robert Albert

Wow! Papenfuß..?? That is just as unusual as Babenousch. Well, I looking forward to getting the church record microfilm. Since I have her birthdate it might not be difficult to find her. Probably will take a month or two, but I will let you know. Thank you!
Janet

I didn't have much time yesterday, but on a whim I dropped by my FHC across town to see if I could find the christening record for Sophia quickly. Well, that was an exercise in futility. I first checked of course in Levitzow records in 1787 for it. There is a gap in records prior to 1787 back into earlier records (you will see when film arrives).

You may not know this, but the census data that gets reported in most censuses (whether here or other places) is often incorrect. I bet well over 50% of the time the date they list for births is not even close! Well, no Sophia anything close to Babenousch or on the date of the census.

So I checked the Thurkow books as well, and did not find her there. So then I went to the Vilz records to find Christian and Sophia's first two children born during the years you mentioned (didn't have the census with me), and neither show on those birthdates, nor during any years from 1805-1815!! I figured it was possible that the couple could have married in Vilz, since that is parish for Druesewitz, but no luck. I did run across a a Vollrath Christian Bock/Buck that was married to Sophia Mamerow, and had a child Druesewitz, but unsure if that could be them or not.

Lastly I checked the Cammin records for marriage record for the couple and came up dead end. I had to leave and return to the business at hand yesterday, so will maybe take another stab at it next week if time permits. I didn't check for Christian's birth record, so maybe he will show up in Cammin records.

Sorry for the lack of good news, but that's what happens in research. Sometimes it goes smoothly, and others it is a struggle.

Robert

How very kind of you to do that for me. I have found many errors while using U.S. censuses, but this is my first experience with a European one. How disappointing it is going to be if they are not in those locations. Where would I look next, I wonder.

I do know that the birthdate and place given for Johan Bock, Christian and Sophie's son, is correct, as I have both from other records.

It's surprising that NONE of the other family members were born where they were said to be... seems like I would get lucky with at least one of them. I ordered the Levitzow film, but it sounds like I will not find my Sophie there.

I keyed the names Babenrüsch, Babenoüsch & Papenfuss into the IGI, the Mecklenburg Contact database, and the Genealogy.Net databases. Only found Papenfuss, though many surnames began with Baben- or Boben-, but ended differently.
I wonder what Babenrüsch translates to (if anything). Keyed it into Babelfish but it wouldn't translate.

Would you happen to know if any Mecklenburg archive has an online catalog/index? I've been looking online. So far haven't found one, but that doesn't mean I haven't missed it somehow.

Thank you for your thoughts and the time you've spent.

Janet