Province of West Prussia, German Empire

Provinz Westpreussen circa 1846

Source: Handtke, F. (1860). Westpreussen. Glogau: Lithographie Druck u. Verlag von C. Flemming. Taken from: https://uwi-primoalma-prod.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/ol0k7k/TN_lunaRUMSEY~8~1~304125~90074786

The Provinz Westpreussen (Province of West Prussia) was created after the third partition of Poland, where the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided between the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian Empires in 1792 and again after the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The are was incorporated in the Kingdom of Prussia and later the German Empire.

Provinz Westpreussen was divided into two government regions called Regierungsbezirke. The two administrative regions were Danzig (Gdańsk) and Marienwerder (Kwidzyn). Each Regierungsbezirke were divided into smaller administrative districts called Kreise (although the Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich lists a number of these Kreise as powiat (counties)..an example is Inowrocław). The map above does a good job in showing the administrative boundaries.

More information can be found on the County pages on this website.

Extremely helpful websites dealing with the German Administrative districts:

1. Search the Meyers Gazetteer: https://www.meyersgaz.org/
   
2. Familienforschung in Westpreußen: http://www.westpreussen.de/cms/ct/ortsverzeichnisse.php
3. Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. (CompGen) – The Historic Gazetteer: http://gov.genealogy.net/search/index