Bill's Genealogy Blog

Bill Buchanan is a long-time genealogy enthusiast, living in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada. This blog will describe my experiences as I research my family history and help others.

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Location: Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada

I am a retired online school teacher. I love family history. Since 2007, I have spent much of my time providing part-time support for the world's largest free family history site https://familysearch.org This is very rewarding. I have helped others with the Family Tree and related FamilySearch products.
In 2010-2018 I served in the Edmonton Riverbend Family History Centre. I have a FHC blog at Bill's Family History Center Blog For information the Latter-day Saints and family history click https://www.comeuntochrist.org/

Monday, December 02, 2013

Where and which is Konigsau?

A member of my class was hoping to find the parents of his ancestor Johan Dekinder. Through research I was able to find that Johan was born in Konigsau, Lemberg, Austria, which is now Rivne, L'viv, Ukraine. During the latter part of his reign, Holy Roman Emperor Josef II arranged the creation of German-speaking settlements in the area around L'viv/Lemberg as model farming communities to serve as an example to the Ukrainian and Polish speaking residents. One of these communities was Konigsau, shaped like a regular pentagon. It seems like a fascinating place! I was fortunate to find the local history book, which lists 3 generations of Johan's ancestors! It does not tell where Johan's great grandparents were born, but that is another puzzle for my friend to work on.

In 1939, the Hitler government brought all of the German-speaking residents to Germany, and these settlements became Ukrainian-speaking. The "Galician Germans" became just another chapter in the history books.

A good article on Josef II can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

(There are various other communities by the name of Königsau, but Johan was from the one in Galicia.)

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