Looking for help from my ancestors TILKE

[cmansilla]

Hello everyone! Thank you in advance for reading my query.

My name is Carlos Mansilla, I am writing to you from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I am looking for the birth certificate or baptismal certificate of my great-great-grandfather Hermann Tilke, born in Wroclaw on 15 November 1863, son of Heinrich Tilke and Johanna Schaffrath.

I would also like to know, if possible, information about his parents, both Heinrich and Johanna. I would like to know the city of their birth and maybe I would like to investigate in that way.

I am grateful for any help you can give me to move forward.

Best regards!

[sonki]

Hello,

do you know the denomination of Hermann and/or his parents? Because Wroclaw is a big city with lots of churches for both denominations (protestant, catholic). Also, did Hermann marry in Wroclaw as well and if so, who was his wife? When did he emmigrate to Argentina?
Every little detail can help to locate records of them, otherwise a search can be quite extensive, because of the sheer number of records in that city.

Update:
Ah ok, found something that might help:

1884, a child of Heinrich Tilke and Johanna Schaffrath, Dorothea Johanna Rosina, married in Ohlau. She was born 1860 in Baumgarten, Ohlau county. Both, Heinrich & Johanna, died before 1884 in Baumgarten. Also important - she was protestant. And a witness of this marriage was Ernst Tilke, born around 1858 - he might be another sibling. Unfortunately lots of protestant records of Baumgarten and/or Ohlau are lost, so it might be difficult to find anything there.

P.S. An Ernst Tilke, born 02.02.1858 in Baumgarten lived in Breslau from around 1886 on. He is most likely the witness from above mentioned marriage record. He was married to Anna Scherner.

P.S. II: There is still a chance to find the death records of Heinrich & Johanna in the civil registry of Baumgarten. At the moment the only years available online are 1881 & 1882 (and these records are quite damaged). So if some day the other years (1874-1880, 1883-1886) will be available, its possible to find them in there.

P.S. III: I've checked the following protestant churches in Breslau/Wroclaw for a 15. Nov. 1863 christening/birth without success:
Bernhardin, Christophorus, Elisabeth, Maria-Magdalena, Salvator, Hofkirche, 11Tausend Jungfrauen. The only protestant church without preserved records for 1863 is St. Barbara.
The question now is, is the birth place 100% confirmed, because taking into account that 1-2 siblings were born in Baumgarten and the fact that Heinrich&Johanna died in Baumgarten as well, the chances for the 1863 birth being in Baumgarten is kinda high.

[cmansilla]

Hello!

Thank you very much for your reply, it is very interesting what you were able to find. I had discovered this possible sister of my great-great-grandfather (Dorothea Johanna Rosina), but now with what you tell me, I am more convinced that it could be her.

Hermann's religion, I understand, is protestant, as his remains here in Argentina, are in the German Cemetery in Buenos Aires, where at the time only protestant Germans could be buried.

I do not know the year in which he arrived in Argentina. He married here in Buenos Aires, with my great-great-grandmother Antonina Sanchez, in 1896.I have the marriage certificate, and there it appears that his parents are deceased, so I am still sure that the information you gave me about Heinrich and Johanna is accurate.


The one I had no information about is Ernst Tilke, another very interesting piece of information you were able to find, I thank you for it.

I have already sent an e-mail to the county of Baumgarten (now Braszowice) to see if they can help me with the search for this document, as all roads lead to this city. It is possible that my great-great-grandfather Hermann was born in Baumgarten and not in Wroclaw.

Keep in touch and any other information you can locate would be of great help, thank you very much again!

[Weltenwanderer]

Hi,

Braszowice is not the right Baumgarten. The one you are seeking is now part of Ohlau (Oława) - Baumgarten constituted the part of the city west of the Oława river until it was absorbed by the city (I think in 1913). The local hospital used to be located there as well, which makes it a great place to look for death records.
See this map:

https://maps.arcanum.com/en/map/europe-19century-secondsurvey/?layers=osm%2C158%2C164&bbox=1922386.034973334%2C6608879.267571223%2C1926241.8743138514%2C6613711.919544672

Kind regards,
Michael

[cmansilla]

Hi Michael, thank you so much for your help.

I will look that like you said.

Thank you again!

[cmansilla]

Thank you very much Sonki, I appreciate your help and you are guiding me in a very correct and accurate way.

I am not 100% sure that your hometown is Wroclaw. I am only relying on the records I have of his marriage and death certificates, where it says he was born there.

I think the same as you say, that his hometown was originally Baumgarten, so I would have to follow the search completely in the birth records of that specific city.

[sonki]

I think the same as you say, that his hometown was originally Baumgarten, so I would have to follow the search completely in the birth records of that specific city.

The problem here is, that almost all protestant records for Baumgarten have not survived the war, they are gone (only some very old records from 17xx are still there). So I think the best way to proceed here is to find the death records of his parents. They might have died between 1874-1886 and therefore could be found in the civil death records. These records are not online yet (with the exception of the years 1881 & 1882). So a request to the state archive in Wroclaw is one possible way now. I'm not sure if they will accept such a search request (covering 10+ years) and if so it might cost you a bit, but I would definitely ask.
In case they find both death records (unless both died before 1874), you should then have their birth years, birth places and a hint there you might find the marriage record (ideally outside of Baumgarten, otherwise you are out of luck).

[Weltenwanderer]

Hi,

Baumgarten death records 1874-1888 can be viewed from FHCs:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/209408?availability=Family%20History%20Library

https://www.familysearch.org/fhcenters/locations/

Kind regards,
Michael

[cmansilla]

Hello!

Thank you so much Sonki and Michael for both answers.

Sonki: Today I received an e-mail from the State Archive of Wroclaw offering a manual search in the records of several evangelical churches, within the years I need to find this document. Of course it is necessary to pay, so I am going to start the research on that side.

Michael: I Will search on that page, thank you!

We'll keep in touch!

Carlos.

[cmansilla]

P.S. III: I've checked the following protestant churches in Breslau/Wroclaw for a 15. Nov. 1863 christening/birth without success:
Bernhardin, Christophorus, Elisabeth, Maria-Magdalena, Salvator, Hofkirche, 11Tausend Jungfrauen. The only protestant church without preserved records for 1863 is St. Barbara.

Hi Sonki! I have a question: Where did you look for this information? I am asking because yesterday I received a reply from the Wroclaw Historical Archives and they offered me to do a manual search (at a charge of course) in the archives of the following churches: St. Bernardine (ref. 6, 1863-1869), St. Elizabeth (ref. 53, 1862 -1864, ref. 7, 1860 -1873), St. Christopher (ref. 6, 1863 -1869), the Court Church (ref. 6, 1854 -1863), St. Mary Magdalene (ref. 39, 1860 -1863) and the Church of the Redeemer (ref. 10, 1852 -1863) belonging to the ensemble called the Storehouse of Evangelical Metrical Books.

The question is this: Should I pay them to do it the way they offered it to me, or might I have the same result as you gave me?

Thank you in advance

[sonki]

P.S. III: I've checked the following protestant churches in Breslau/Wroclaw for a 15. Nov. 1863 christening/birth without success:
Bernhardin, Christophorus, Elisabeth, Maria-Magdalena, Salvator, Hofkirche, 11Tausend Jungfrauen. The only protestant church without preserved records for 1863 is St. Barbara.

Hi Sonki! I have a question: Where did you look for this information? I am asking because yesterday I received a reply from the Wroclaw Historical Archives and they offered me to do a manual search (at a charge of course) in the archives of the following churches: St. Bernardine (ref. 6, 1863-1869), St. Elizabeth (ref. 53, 1862 -1864, ref. 7, 1860 -1873), St. Christopher (ref. 6, 1863 -1869), the Court Church (ref. 6, 1854 -1863), St. Mary Magdalene (ref. 39, 1860 -1863) and the Church of the Redeemer (ref. 10, 1852 -1863) belonging to the ensemble called the Storehouse of Evangelical Metrical Books.

The question is this: Should I pay them to do it the way they offered it to me, or might I have the same result as you gave me?

Thank you in advance

I'm pretty sure they would find the same results.
But you can check yourself, just in case - these church books arre available online. This site will help you to find the records online:

http://www.christoph-www.de/breslau%201.html#evkirchen

Due to some changes on certain websites some URLs might not work as intended (i.e. the archeion URLs). Also some churchbooks can be found on several websites, but each of these websites might not offer all books, so you have to crosscheck them all.