Can someone please help me trace my family back further?

Michael Jendusa

Hello, my name is Mike. I am new to this group and hope someone here can help me in my geneaology research.

My great grandfather was born in Voightshagen Prussia which is now a part of Poland. I have found his birth record but nothing else. I know he was born Feb. 25 1823 to Martin Pagenkopf and Dorthea Gaedtke. My great grandfathers name is Ferdinand Pagenkopf. His id # is L6SQ-4F6

I would love to learn more about him and hopefully trace that part of my family back further generations. I would greatly appreciate any help from this group

Ulrich Neitzel

@Michael Jendusa

Hello Mike,

I understand that the Voigtshagen your ancestors came from is the one in Kreis Greifenberg: https://www.meyersgaz.org/place/21037056. (There is another one in Kreis Naugard/Pommern: https://www.meyersgaz.org/place/21037057, however, the baptism record of Ferdinand is from Zedlin which also is in Kreis Greifenberg).

The German genealogic website for Pomerania www.pommerscher-greif.de has an overview page for Voigtshagen: https://www.pommerscher-greif.de/ortsuebersicht.html?userort=VOIGENJO74OB, which lists the available sources. It shows that the church books for Voigtshagen were kept at the Zedlin parish (scroll down to "1. Online verfügbare Kirchenbücher bei familysearch.org"). Church books with baptism, marriage and death records are available 1810-1874 and fully accessible on familysearch.com. Older churchbooks seem not to be existent any more. Note that many of the church books in Pomerania disappeared in the aftermath of WWII.

On the same webpage under the same item you find a point Findhilfen. There several pdf files are linked which contain searchable lists of births (Geburten), baptisms (Taufen), marriages (Heiraten), and deaths (Todesfälle) for the time frame 1800-1874. You can search these lists for the name "Pagenkopf" or "Gaedcke" and will find several entries, e.g. for the birth of Ferdinand and his siblings. I found also a death entry for a Martin Pagenkopf in Voigtshagen who died 1832, 64 years old. This might be the grandfather of Ferdinand.

The parents of Ferdinand Pagenkopf were born probably around 1800, so birth records for them are probably not available if they were born in Voigtshagen. I did not find a marriage entry either, but the marriage was possibly at another place if the bride came from elsewhere.

Hope this helps you to do some more research. Please ask if you need more guidance.

.

Michael Jendusa

Thank you! Unfortunately I don't speak German so I may be reaching out again for your help.