East Prussia Lutheran Church records online at the Latvia Archives:
http://www.lvva-raduraksti.lv/lv/login.htmlHas anyone else searched the Latvia Archives? There are 244 Evangelisch Lutheran Parishes listed on the Raduraksti website. I am looking for surnames: GNOSS, SCHMIEDLING, LANGHANS in area of Preussisch Eylau, current day Kaliningrad, Russia and just over the border into northeast Poland. Maybe near Bagrationovsk, Russia.
Here's some history of East Prussia:
Source:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirchenprovinz_Ostpreu%C3%9FenThe ecclesiastical province of East Prussia was an administrative unit of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union (APU). It was established in 1817 and existed until 1945. Preussisch Eylau Kirchenkreis included: Albrechtsdorf, Almenhausen-Abschwangen, Borken, Buchholz, Dollstädt, Eichhorn, Gross Peisten-Hanshagen, Guttenfeld, Jesau, Kanditten, Klein Dexen, Kreuzburg, Landsberg, Mühlhausen, Petershagen, Preussisch Eylau, Reddenau, Schmoditten, Stablack, Tharau, Uderwangen.
Source:
http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/web/geography/regions/warmia/...Warmia (Ermeland or Ermland)
This historic region in the North of Poland was ceded to Poland from Prussia in 1466 by the Teutonic Knights, later passed to Prussia in 1772, and reverted to Poland after the second World War. The population of Warmia is over 1,463,000 (in 1998) and the total area is 24,203 square kilometers. Warmia is famous for its numerous beautiful gothic castles and palaces.
Mazury (Masuria)
A gently undulating, forested, lightly inhabited area with an amazing number of postglacial lakes - perhaps as many as 30,000. It is a favorite destination for Poles in summer. In the early Middle Ages it was populated by a Western Baltic people who went by the name "Prussians." In their effort to convert the natives to Christianity at the end of a sword, the German Teutonic Knights depopulated the area which became part of their state. Later, as Royal Prussia, the area became a vassal of the Polish Crown but the population was predominately German, in time becoming the East Prussian province of Germany. It reverted to Poland in 1945.
Together Warmia and Mazury currently form a single province.