I need help with German place names.

Question

I need some help with German place names. In adding some of my German ancestors over the weekend, I realized how inconsistent I’ve been in place names; some in German, some in English, and no consistent structure.

I want to go back through the profiles I’ve added and try to make the place names consistent. But the truth is, I really don’t know the proper structure for these places.

Most of my German ancestors were in Marx between 1680 and 1880.

There was also a good number in Hollen Leer between 1790 and 1860, and Kleinhollen between 1810 and 1850.

If someone can help out with the correct place names for these, I will really appreciate it.

Answer 1

Please have a look at the historical gazeteer (GOV = Geschichtliches Ortsverzeichnis), the proper structure depends on the actual dates, see "Superordinate objects" there.

The respective places are:

Marx = https://gov.genealogy.net/item/show/object_284653
Hollen (Leer) = http://gov.genealogy.net/item/show/object_284627
Kleinhollen = http://gov.genealogy.net/item/show/KLHLENJO43NB

Comments

Thank you! This is much more complicated than I'd hoped. Let me see if I understand.

My grandfather was born in Marx in 1847. So I would ihdicate his birthplace as:
Marx, Friedeburg, Ostfriesland, Aurich, Hannover, Deutscher Bund

His aunt died in Marx in 1886, so her place of death would be:
1886: Marx, Wittmund, Aurich, Hannover, Preußen

His father was born in Marx in 1814, so his place of birth was:
1812: Marx, Friedeburg
is that it? Nothing more that Freideburg?

Am I reading this charts correctly? Thanks again for your help.

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Exactly! Unfortunately 1814 is incomplete in the chart. The Kingdom of Hanover was founded in 1814, the German Confederation in 1815.

I myself always follow the path in the chart and shorten the result to four entries so that the result is unambiguous. In doing so, I allow myself a few liberties that will probably give some historians a headache. Since, for example, the Holy Roman Empire ended in 1806 and the German Confederation was not founded until 1815, I still assign associated places in this period to the Holy Roman Empire.

1814: Marx, Aurich, Hannover, Heiliges Römisches Reich
1847: Marx, Aurich, Hannover, Deutscher Bund
1886: Marx, Aurich, Hannover, Deutsches Reich

You could sum it up as "Marx, Aurich, Hanover, Germany", which is what I've mostly done myself, but the above information is more accurate, which many genealogists and WikiTree prefer ("We aim to use the name that was used in that place, at the time of the event you're recording.").

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Thank you again! This has been very helpful. And thank you for sharing your method of shortening the path. Yesterday I was feeling very overwhelmed by German place names. Today, I still think I have some work to do, but I think it is something I can do. Thank you!