One of the hardest things to define for many people is where their German ancestors came from. For instance, my friend's great-great grandfather was born in Adelby (Flensburg) in Schleswig in 1853, and although he was German, he was actually born in the kingdom of Denmark, and lucky for my friend, the region today is known as Schleswig-Holstein, so it was not too difficult for him to figure out where his place of birth is today.
Another great-great grandfather was born in Berghausen, which today is in Nordrhein-Westfalen, but at the time was part of the Kingdom of Hanover. If he did not know the name of the small town in which he was born, he would have thought that he came from the city of Hannover, which today is in Niedersachsen, but what one has to keep in mind, is that at the time, Hanover meant more than just the city on the Leine River - it was a Kingdom!
With these examples in mind, I have created this page as a resource for determining how boundaries have changed over the past few centuries as an aid to ascertain "where" a German came from. The links below will help you define the older teritorial extents of past German provinces and kingdoms and define exactly what Prussia (Preußen) was. If you happen to find more resources which could be added to this page, please notify me.
Be sure to look at the Historical Maps as an aid!!!
./hesse.htm
Everything you need for Hessen maps.
Explanation
of the German
Bundesländer
(States) before and after reunification.
Be careful .. not updated as often as it should be (by others). My E-Mail
address there is wrong, for example.
./index.htm
Everything you need for German research... and more!!
EMail : dwats .. at .. cox . net