1700 is listed as year of birth for Johann Stumpf (m. Mary Bakerin) AND the year the couple emigrated to America

Question

1700 can't be the year Johann Stumpf (AKA John Stump) he was born, as well as the year he and his wife Mary Bakerin emigrated from Prussia to Maryland in America.  The sources quoted are contradictory, yet this has not been resolved before posting on Wikitree.  Need help in researching what is his actual year of birth, and what is actual year of emigration. Please help clarify the confusion.  Thanks!

Answer 1

Johan Jacob Stumpf

Deutschland Geburten und Taufen

Name	Johan Jacob Stumpf
Gender	Male
Christening Date	06 Feb 1701
Christening Place	EVANGELISCH,LANGENLONSHEIM,RHEINLAND,PRUSSIA
Father's Name	Hanss Philip Stumpf

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Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898

System Origin	Germany-ODM
GS Film Number	493324
Indexing Project (Batch) Number	C98148-1

Citing this Record

"Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898," database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N28R-8YV : 28 November 2014), Johan Jacob Stumpf, 06 Feb 1701; citing ; FHL microfilm 493,324.

Answer 2

I really wished we could be a little more careful with "Prussian" localities and not just take FamilySearch as gospel. If Langenlonsheim were the place of origin for your Stump(f)s they would not have been from Prussia in 1700. Langenlonsheim at that time belonged to the Pfalzgrafschaft bei Rhein and did not become Prussian until 1815. This is Prussia around 1700:

Comments

Helmut, thanks for your caution and suggestion of caution on everyone's part. Many of us are not quite prepared for the historical complexities of the evolution through the centuries into the area's familiar name changes.

So what can you instruct everyone to do as a first step in your phrases of "being a little more careful." Those of us with difficult problems in our family lines could use your thoughtful guidance.

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As far as I could work it out most of the locations on FamilySearch are based on late 19th century sources. At that time Prussia did indeed cover most of Northern Germany, but the Prussian expansion West was only fairly recent: the first wave in 1815 through the Congress of Vienna after the defeat of Napoleon, the second in the 1860's when Prussia gobbled up some other until then independent German states in the North and West.

The answer for somebody able to read German is to do a Google search on the town on the German Wikipedia and look at the history section. Unfortunately, the English Wikipedia does not have many smaller places and even for bigger towns the history section is often very limited.

Absent some German knowledge I would look at a historical map of Prussia and compare with a map of the town I'm looking for and if it looks like there is a discrepancy I would post a question here in G2G.