Immecke, Germany still exist?
In the early1700s, my relatives lived in Immecke, or Imbecke, Rhineland, Prussia. It was a small group of homes at the time. Does it exist today, if so how is it identified? I have checked Meyers, but not clear to me.
hoping someone can help. Thanks much, Bonnie
Best Answer
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Hi Bonnie, I am looking into this a little bit, to give you the best response. First, the Meyers gazetteer, or the Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs does show a listing for Immecke. https://www.meyersgaz.org/place/10873126
Second, the location listed for Immecke, is "Immecke, Altena, Arnsberg, Westfalen, Preussen."
Third, here's the tricky part, your query indicated the early 1700s. Meyersgaz shows Prussia at its largest, from 1871 though 1918. We love to use Meyers because it does so much more than show us the place name (explanation following) it also provides the Kreis (county is probably the best term for this word) and province, and then state. At the time of this gazetteer was created, it was identified as you see above. (Immecke, Altena, Arnsberg, Westfalen, Preussen).
Immecke appears on the map. I have included a screenshot. Above the map, in the grey ribbon, where we read Entry, Map, Ecclesiastical, Related, E-Mail and Feedback, we can actually click on each of these, and a new window will appear. The map allows us to toggle the historical map, which is overlaid onto a modern Google map. We also have the option to click on boxes that will show us the nearest Catholic, Protestant parishes, civil registration offices, and Jewish synagogues. When you search for records for this location in the FamilySearch catalogue, you can search by place name, and see what records FamilySearch may have for this area.
I checked the FamilySearch catalog for Immecke, and there were no results. I checked the catalog for Altena, and found two hits. I chose Altena, Westfalen, Prussia. There were three collections, and within a small box at the top, I used the Places Within feature. This showed me two places.
I know this isn't answering your question just yet, I am showing you how I would solve to find out, what genealogical records are available for this area. I am also looking to see how early this records might be. For Altena, I see Protestant records starting in this collection at 1810. There's a church book duplicate starting a bit later, and then a collection for a convent.
If I were looking for Catholic records, I would toggle the map, and see that the nearest Catholic church is in Plettenberg. I would then search the FamilySearch catalog for Plettenberg to see what records are there and how early they were recorded.
Immecke probably existed before the above mentioned date. I did a quick Google search for the place name, but only a map came up. I couldn't immediately find any other historical entry. So, I dug in a little more. Good thing you asked! I went to Compgen.de which is a German language genealogy site, with loads of information. I clicked on GOV with is in English is the Historical Gazetteer. Here's the link to what I found. http://gov.genealogy.net/search/name
I clicked on the only entry: http://gov.genealogy.net/item/show/IMMCKEJO31WE. Plettenberg seems to be the key city or town with more information. I did a Google search on Plettenberg, and found a wikipedia article, and to double our fun, I changed the page into the German wikipedia, and found even more information, that you may conveniently right click on that page, and translate to English.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plettenberg
There are reference books on this topic, but being that I was not at the Family History Library, I accessed what I have available online. The above map shows you Plettenberg, which would include your small grouping of homes, Immecke. I circled around back to the Compgen article about Plettenberg, and found out a little more information about it, which may include information about your Immecke.http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/GOV:PLEERGJO31WF
What I am looking for to show you, are founding dates, that Immecke would have been affected by. The entry indicated Lutheran church books since 1771, reformed since 1656. Home and population statistics as early as 1787, and even an address book.
You will definitely want to check this page because under Bürger Rechtsquelle-Bürgerbuch, you have more information. Turns out, the page can be translated into English, if you right click the page.
To answer your question, yes, it existed, but being that it was a small location, records would have been created at another location that fell under jurisdiction or administration of government or churches, which at the time of your query may have been both, since there may not have been a separation between church and state.
The key here for you, will be knowing what religion your ancestors were. I did a little more searching beyond this, and found more entries, but am not sure how they relate just yet. I realize this is information is substantial. This is how I would search to find information about a location, and I wanted to walk you through the process. A recent update caused a lot of posts to go missing. I recommend you copy and paste this to a word document, and at your convenience, work through this. I do remember seeing in Compgen a forum specifically for this region, where you could ask more questions. You can check Facebook for this region, as well.
If you have more questions, please ask.
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Answers
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Hello @bonniesamuel1
There can be found two locations with the name Immecke:
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Hello @bonniesamuel1
There are two places in Germany called Immecke, both rather close (~ 13 miles) to each other in the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen:
The first one is now part of the town Meinertshagen, the second is part of the town Plettenberg. Meyers has an entry only for the second one.
Both are in the hilly area called "Sauerland"; historically it belonged to the Prussian province of Westphalia, not the Rhineland.
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Here is a possibly interesting document about the historic farmsteads in Immecke/Plettenberg (in German):
Maybe you can find known names.
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@Ulrich Neitzel Herzlichen Dank, ich habe auch zwei Ort gefunden, und entschied mich für das oben Erwähnte Information. Es freut mich zu sehen, das Sie diesen Post gelesen und gewidmet haben. Ich habe mich mehr um den Prozess des Herausfinden gekümmert, und erfreue mich das es noch weitere Information zum Thema erstellt wurden ist.
@bonniesamuel1 the community forum is an excellent place to ask questions, and receive answers. If you need assistance in understanding the German information above, I highly recommend our 20 minute online consultations through FamilySearch. You can easily schedule appointment here.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/family-history-library/family-history-library-research-consultations
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@Ulrich Neitzel Great resource Ulrich, thanks for posing this! KG
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