PLEASE... prussian history sooo hard to find. I am looking for my relatives said to be Prussian Count. Last name of Von Grozinski. Unsure of correct spelling. ANYONE!!! please. If you have any info at all at how I can look up Prussian royalty, kindly let me know!!!!! ANY help at all will be greatly appreciated!!! Profound thanks......CINDY

Not sure of Prussian Royalty, or Von. The surname Grozinski has come across my family tree. I have a Family name Grozinski, August. He worked with Emporer or Kaiser Wilhelm of Prussia around the 1850's caring for his horses. When the talk of war started he and his family left to come to America. He settled in Alpena, Mi.
I am very interested in hearing from you reguarding this matter.

I am a non-German speaking person and need to know the significance of the prefix "Von". I ask because my Von Elias relatives shortened it to Elias and are said to be from Prussia but I cannot find any records of birth/baptisms/marriages in Europe and aside from knowing the year of immigration (1855) I have no idea as to what port or anything else. Thanks to anyone who can answer this. My people settled first in Detroit, MI, then Sheboygan and Manitowoc Co, WI, Houghton & Keweenaw Cos., MI, and then back to Detroit.

Hello there. My great grandmother is a Von Grozinski and it's been said that there were Royalty amoungst them, however since the war, all records have been destroyed for the safety of the families and i'm at a dead end at this point. When I have time, I will go over my records again and ask remaining family members if they have ever heard of a August. I'm told by an ancestrian helper that Von meant Royalty where Van was just a surname of sorts.
you can email me at iamskppr@aol.com and it would probably be easier to reach me... thanks!
Cindy

Hello there. What I'm told is that Von means that they were Royalty and the reason you cannot find any records then was when the war started, the records, especially Royal ones, were destroyed to protect the families. I'm not German speaking either!! Also be aware that Prussia is a combination of Germany and Poland. My ancesters I believe were right on the border little into Poland but looking at old maps and comparing to the new ones can be tiring to say the least!
Hope I helped a bit... you can email me better at iamskppr@aol.com
Cindy

Von does not signify royalty - it usually signified aristocracy of some level or other. Records were not destroyed to protect families - there are as many records of as many families as any where else. Many records of all sorts were destroyed during WW2 mainly because they were in the path of bombs or were destroyed in the wake of the fighting as the Allies closed in on all sides. Prussia is not a "combination of Germany and Poland". The Kingdom of Prussia was a part (some would say the most important!) of the German Empire which came to an end in 1919. Therafter it was part of Germany until 1945. East Prussia was a Province of Prussia and covered a large area round the Eastern end of the Baltic, stretching (roughly) from Danzig to Lithuania, Russia and southwards into inter-war Poland. In 1945 all parts of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse rivers, which included East Prussia, were were ceded to present day Poland with the northern half of East Prussia being given to Russia. Maps of the old boundaries are easily available to pinpoint towns and lists giving both old and new names are also easy to find.

Well, consider me corrected! If you notice, I wrote "what I've been told".... and that would also explain why I cannot find what I'm looking for because obviously I'm looking in the wrong direction altogether. I'll have to try again since I stopped due to the "mis" information I was given.... thanks for the info.