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Hunting for the Nipkows - Part 3

Well, it's been quite a ride. I started this just a few days ago thinking it would be interesting to learn a little bit about Pomerania, where Augusta Nipkow and her family came from. And I started writing Part 1 of this series not knowing what I would find. But since records are added at a rapid pace these days, there was more to be found than I realized.

First off, although I believe that Augusta was born in Butow as was said, I did not any direct evidence of that. Nothing I found contradicts it though. Her parents moved around a lot, and they certainly left proof of that. And although her parents moved around a lot, her grandparents and extended family probably didn't.

Working back, here's what I found:

1872 - Nipkows left from Stettin and settled in Jackson County Iowa
1872 - Nipkows lived in Hohengrape
1865 - Augusta born in Butow
1862 - Otto born in Klutzow
1858 - Parents, Friederich and Wilhelmina Huebner married in Klempin
1827 - Birth of Daniel Frederich Nipkow in Saarow

This map comes from http://ourwebpages.net/pommern_ws/map_table.html. It is a composite of images found on that site and from "Pommern Landkarte - 1938 - Map of Pomerania"
Nipkow Villages (highlighted in yellow)


Saarow, Klempin, and Klutzow were all villages very close to Stargard. That, I would say is the ancestral home of the Nipkows and Huebners. But a few years after starting their family, Friederich and Wilhelmina moved around some. Butow was 25 miles east of Stargard, Hohengrape was 35 miles southeast of Stargard. These locations make sense because they are relatively close to Stettin, and not far from each other. But records are scarce in some parts of Pomerania and I haven't found any yet for some of those locations.

To find these locations on a modern map, you have to know the Polish names for these old German towns. As a starting point, some of the major towns on this map are Stargard, now known as Stargard Szczecinski, Jacobshagen, now known as Dobrzany, and Bernstein, now known as Pełczyce.

The second finding was that Friederich Nipkow, the immigrant, had at least one brother that also came to America, settling in Wisconsin. The Nipkow name isn't very common, so it isn't surprising that  the Wisconsin branch is related. Also, I don't believe there are any descendents of Friederich who carry the Nipkow name any more, so it's good to know that the name lives on.

As an aside, I'm not sure what the name means. The -kow ending is fairly common in Pomerania and it has a slavic origin. The native Poles and Germans each occupied the area at various times over the centuries so the names and cultures no doubt mixed.

The third finding is my surprise at seeing so many names that I don't consider to be very German. Names like David, Daniel, and Michael seem pretty common among the records of Nipkows that I found, and other families of these communities. Of course names like Christian, Friederich, Albert, Ludwig,Wilhelm and August were common as well, and those certainly do sound German, but I wonder if there could be some Jewish influence. Also, it is interesting that in official records in Germany Friederich was known as Daniel Friederich, but one he arrived in America, he was known as Friederich or just Fritz. I've seen his name with a middle initial of "D.".

It's been fun.

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