Hallo! Ich versuche, ein wenig in einem Stammbaum zu stöbern, bin aber etwas steckengeblieben. Ein Großelternteil von mir versucht herauszufinden, woher sein Vater kommt, aber ich konnte nichts über ihn finden! Der Großelternteil sagt, sein Vater sei in einer kleinen Stadt in Preußen gewesen, etwas in der Art "Schnapp dir Nagavoria"? Ich konnte unter diesem Namen nichts finden und frage mich, ob jemand eine Idee hätte, was das sein könnte! Danke!
Von advancedskunk
18 Kommentare
Sorry to be negative but Grabnagavoria sounds like a completely made up name and doesn’t sound German/Prussian to start with.
It might have been a Latinized name of a Polish town? Like Krakow is called Cracovia in Latin? Of course large parts of Prussia are nowadays Polish. But it wasn’t really common to call a city by its Latinized Polish name in German AFAIK
In Prussia in general? Or specific in East or West Prussia?
I’m not sure if it’s much help but my family is also Prussian and our hometown in Poland now. Chances are the city is now in Poland or Kaliningrad and under a new name. If you can find a translation of the name and look it up in polish or Russian that may help.
Post a document with that name. Better on r/Genealogy
A good way to start looking at [Meyers Gazetter](https://meyersgaz.org) using the first letters of the believed place of birth. Grab is a very common beginning of place names. There is some places that are somewhat close:
Grabownia in the Pommern region or
Grabianowo in the Posen region (there is actually two places by that name in the region). Both were part of Prussia until at least 1918.
However, it is probably good to to use some government documentation (e.g. naturalization records with their place of birth, relatives address in immigration records) to narrow it down further and get a better idea of the actual spelling.
Old place names can be very tricky, as the spelling often changes/evolves. I spent literally decades trying to find a city in Italy that was spelled „Otascho“ in a document from the 1700s. It turned out that its contemporary name is „[Voltaggio](https://lij.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaggio)“ (Otascho -> Ottaggio -> Voltaggio).
Have in mind that „back in the day“ spellings of places were not standardized, and people would just write it down as they „sounded“.
Hopefully you can find documents with an specific spelling of the place, and they you can work your way up to the present time.
that writing is weird, prob smth like graudenz or grabow… what region?
Give more details
Possibly this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemer
Grabnick Vorwerk?
You may want to search [this database](http://www.kartenmeister.com/preview/databaseUwe.asp) and see what fits.
How about [Grabnik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grabnik,_E%C5%82k_County) a village currently in the administrative district of Gmina Stare Juchy, within Ełk County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland.
There are also a few more Grabniks, the name you mention possibly includes the regional name, next to the village name.
Garbawa Hawas?
a neighborhood in Gerdawa?
a village of Gawaita?
Gessaws Muluzan?
Town spellings and names change over time, especially when the entire nation around them ceases to exist. The smaller the town, the more the name drifts.
Interesting project, good luck!
The first part sounds like Grabno, which is name of several places in Poland, probably including the former Prussian territory
wow that’s a tricky one, maybe it’s spelled differently or changed names over time
man, Prussian towns have the wildest names, maybe try checking old maps or records for something similar sounding?
My two guesses based on the name alone:
[Grabno](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grabno_(Ustka))
[Grabów nad Prosną](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grab%C3%B3w_nad_Prosn%C4%85)
Maybe the fellas at r/EastPrussia can help you.
Edit: assuming the town is in that part of former Prussia, which belongs to Russia since 1944; as others pointed out, Prussia as a whole also encompassed what today is a huge part of the northern half of Germany and northern and western Poland.
The surname gerzner ets Germanic ?
Maybe Olecko, then Marggrabowa in East Prusaka
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olecko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olecko)