| Edward R. Brandt |
| Edward R. Brandt obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in 1970 and taught from that time until forced into early retirement due to a medical condition in 1992. He taught at 10 various colleges and universities including the University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin. He learned the old Gothic script as a young student in Manitoba grade school. Two Foreign Service teaching assignments in Germany produced fluency in the language. Ed had been a genealogy addict for 40 years beginning in May 1966 when he discovered his mother-in-law’s ancestral emigrants to Galicia. He was an Accredited Genealogist specializing in Germanic research from 1989 to 1999. Ed was a co-founder of the Germanic Genealogy Society, the Polish Genealogical Society of Minnesota and the Federation of East European Family History Societies (FEEFHS). He has authored several books on German, Polish, and Hungarian topics. Apart from articles in dozens of journals, he is best known as chief co-author of Germanic Genealogy: A Guide to Worldwide Sources and Migration Patterns and the Genealogical Guide to East and West Prussia. A companion volume for East Brandenburg, Pomerania, Posen and Silesia is in the works. |
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| Presentations: |
| • | Genealogical Records in the Prussian East |
| | The same records existed for each eastern Prussian province including East and West Prussia, Pomerania, Posen, Silesia, and East Brandenburg but they became part of Prussia at different times. Records covered in the presentation for areas east of the Oder-Neisse are in Berlin, Leipzig or Poland. Important ones include vital registers, land and tax records, court records, published lineages, card and data collections, and records of refugees, expellees and re-settlers from the East. |
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| • | German Migration to Linguistic Enclaves in the East |
| | One migration path consisted of movement to central Poland, Volhynia and certain south Russia (incl. Black Sea) settlements and a second path consisted of movement to Galicia, the Bukovina, the Banat and the Batschka. Origins of these two groups of settlers are quite different. Migration to Bessarabia and Mennonite areas (Prussia, south Russia) can also be included depending upon the interests of audience members. Time will be left for questions about these diverse areas. |
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