Hi everyone,

In going through some old obituaries and files, I found my 3g-grandmother's obituary. Her name was Caroline. Unfortunately, I don't know her last name, but she married a Carl/Karl RUHR about 1850. Her obituary states she was born in "Dorf Hartwick", East Prussia, Germany. I know that dorf translates to village, but Hartwick has me thrown. She and her daughter never learned English so I'm guessing that this was translated through her granddaughter.

Her daughter was Henrietta RUHR WITT LASS. She was born about 1855. Family story has that she first married a John (Johann?) Witt. He was thrown from a horse and died in 1882. She then married an August LASS in 1883. He was born about 1856. According to her obituary, August was from Gruenhagen. Again, an English translation nearly 60 years after the fact. They came to the US in 1889 and settled in Iowa.

I apologize for this being so long, but I've included everything that I know about this couple.

Is there anyone out there who would be so kind as to help me figure this out and help me find where and what "Dorf Hartwick" actually might be?

Thank you so much in advance.

If you look under "Kartenmeister" you will find you can put in as little as the first letter of a town/village and the province Ostpreussen and it will throw up everything starting with that letter. There was a Hartwichs in Pruessisch Holland, Ostpreussen which is now Bukowa in the Polish province of Elblaskie, ca. 3.4km from Grunhagen, nowadays Zielonka Paslecka There was also a Hartwich Vorwerk (this last word puzzles me as it does not really sound like a place name - but!). This was in Mohrungen, Ostpreussen and is nowadays Warkalki in Olsztynskie Province in Poland about 4 km from Gross Hermanau, today Niebrzydowo Wielkie in Poland. What is particularly interesting about this site is that when you have pinned down your town there is an opportunity to email other people who are interested in the same place, which might lead anywhere. Hope this helps.