I believe Kartenmeister.com for Prussian genealogy is an indispensable tool.

The brainchild of Uwe-Karsten Krickhahn, Kartenmeister.com contains more than 109,000 entires. If you’re researching locations east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, based on the borders of the eastern provinces in the spring of 1918, this is the site for you.

Included in this database these provinces are: Ostpreußen – East Prussia, including Memel; and Westpreußen – West Prussia, Brandenburg, Posen, Pomerania, and Silesia.

In addition to documenting the former country of Prussia, there are at least 38,691 locations that have changed to Polish, Lithuanian, or Russian names.

The Kartenmeister.com website at present lists most towns or points of interest, including mills, some bridges, battlefields, named trees, cenotaphs etc.

Founder Uwe-Karsten Krickhahn says, “As more information becomes available (i.e., books, maps, your input, etc.), this database will be updated. I would also ask to advise me of any mistakes you may find.”

For the birthplace of Anna Schumann, my great-grandmother, I originally thought it was Bad Freienwalde, since family lore said she was from Berlin. But DNA plus Kartenmeister.com led me to the correct location of Freienwalde in Pomerania, Prussia.Kartenmeister.com for Prussian Genealogy

At Kartenmeister.com, you can search by:

1. German name
2. Older German name
3. Kreis/County
4. By the next larger town (proximity search)
5. Current Polish, Russian or Lithuanian name
6. By Family Name

Some entries have even more information. As seen in the example at right, search results include kreis (county), nearest parish, GPS, and rGerman gazetteer citations.

Best of all is the option to attach the surnames you’re researching in a particular town. This way you can connect with other researchers.

Other helpful tools on the site include local histories, dictionaries for Latin-German-English and Lithuanian-German-English, and other resources.

Here are the areas included in the site:

All locations are EAST of the Oder and Neisse rivers and are based on the borders of the eastern provinces in Spring 1918. Included in this database are the following provinces: East Prussia, including Memel, West Prussia, Brandenburg, Posen, Pomerania, and Silesia. It currently lists most towns or points, including mills, some bridges, battlefields, named trees, cenotaphs etc. As more information becomes available, (books, maps, your input, etc.) this database will be updated. 

Try Kartenmeister.com for Prussian genealogy the next time you need information on an ancestral village. It’s great.