More on the European "Official Papers," and Chrosno

Jim Ehrlich's comment on the post of April 18, 2011 included his translation of the essential terms in the identity papers ("Abzugsattest," "departure certificate") of that time that have come down in our family.

Victoria's birthplace ("Geburtsdort") is given as "Chrosno," which is a village.

Ludwig's birthplace is given as "Leng," which was an estate.

Both Chrosno and Leng were listed as within a political unit equivalent to a county or a shire, ("Kreis," circle) known as "Strzelno."

The Kreis of course no longer exists, but the village of Strzelno certainly exists.

Jim posted a Google map with the villages of Chrosno and Strzelno.  They are in the north of Poland, between Posnan and Warsaw.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Strzelno village square, from its Wikipedia article

The Polish Wikipedia article on Chrosno has this terrific photo of a nineteenth-century windmill.  Google Images has more.

Leng is called on the Abzugsattest a "Gutzbezirk," an estate or manor.  We still can not find it on maps, nor can we find any other references to it as a place name.  So that challenge remains wide open, as does the challenge to find the original document, the Abzugsattest.

Many of the towns and villages on the Polish central plains were invaded first by the Soviets in 1939, then by the Germans in 1941, then by the Soviets again in 1944-45.  There are memoirs of prisoners who were force-marched east or west three times.  I wonder if there is anything left of the estate house at Leng.