To follow the paths of our von Pressentin ancestors after they left the "home" estate of Prestin requires a considerable number of maps. Before getting into the specific places where our forefathers lived, it is helpful to see the general area in which these ancestors lived.
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Germany - Today
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PRESTIN
The Early History of the von Pressentin Family
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As early as 1270 A.D. one of our ancestors, Petrus von Pressentin, was named in an official document as "Lord of the manor Pressentin." The family name probably derives from the word "Prestin," which is the name of the estate owned by the von Pressentin family from at least 1270 to 1872. When the widow of the last owner, Adolph von Pressentin, had to sell the property, she retained the family chapel which has been the final resting place for generations of von Pressentins since 1808. Before that, family members were buried in the crypt beneath the church which still stands beside the chapel.
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Acknowledgments
Before we get underway, I want to acknowledge the sources I have used to compile this information. My main source has been the English translation of the three von Pressentin family histories, The History of the Family von Pressentin:
Book I. Written by Wilhelm von Pressentin. Published in Schwerin in 1899.
Book II. Written by Klaus Gerd v. Pressentin, Lüneburg, 1935.
Book III. Written by Klaus Gerd v. Pressentin, Hannover 1962.
This translation was a "labor of love" by my daughter, Karen Halliday. Where Karen was uncertain about the English translation, her comments are in brackets.
Direct quotes from theThe History of the Family von Pressentin are in italics.
Additional information was generously given by the current von Pressentin family historian, Friedrich-Franz von Pressentin and Christopher Wallis, who has assisted in the restoration of the Prestin family chapel. Friedrich-Franz also maintains a von Pressentin web page, with much valuable information.
The five brothers who started the USA branch of the family were all born in a small village once called "Hoelkewiese," in what was Pomerania--now western Poland. It takes a very detailed map to even show this village, so I was amazed to find that there is a wonderful web site devoted to Hoelkewiese. The web site owner, Dr. Bodo Koglin, has given me permission to quote from his web site and his book, Hölkewiese in Pommern, Eine Chronik which he published in 2005.
And, credit should be given to "Google" the Internet search engine, which provided background information on a multitude of subjects and "Mapquest" for the many maps showing where our ancestors lived.
For a better understanding of the world our von Pressentin ancestors lived in, I highly recommend reading The Vanished Kingdom; Travels Through the History of Prussia, by James Charles Roy, published by the Westview Press in 1999.
Here We Go!
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PRESTINTo identify our direct von Pressentin ancestors, their names will appear in green. Our starting point will be the village of Prestin, (red star on map) where Nicolaus Otto was born to Bernd von Pressentin and Anna Dorothea von Pressentin in 1671. Many of the other estates that were once in the hands of family members are within an easy drive of Prestin.
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©2007 B.Halliday