Who are we?

I never really dug deep enough I suppose,
or was not ready for the truth or
too worried about insignificantia to
investigate further.
I accepted the notion my Great Great Grandfather
was Prussian by heritage and left Prussia circa 1848...
to avoid mandatory service in the military as he was a farmer.
Actually, he was a Dane who lived in an area destined to become part of Germany.
He avoided service
to keep from killing his brothers
what kind of feeling did he harbor?
how did he cope with the news his people were slaughtered for land?
Power?
why were we calling ourselves german? How did that evolve?
several article links on history:


http://www.fortress-scandinavia.dk/Slesvigske-krige/ENG/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Schleswig_War

Bishop Hill, Illnois A National Historic Landmark Village

A good video link about Bishop Hill, Illinois
home of some of our ancestors who settled in the Utopian prairie village.

Geneology Links

Links to history
I have been doing some research on our family roots and really it boils down
to Swedish, Bohemian and Prussian,
well sort of.
　

　
You start to see some blurriness and nomadic activity which I suppose was my biggest first surprise.
Somehow it seemed people back then, would have just stayed put somewhere, forever.
The links below are roughly organized, the first group are about Bishop Hill and our Swedish ancestors. Then Bohemian, then Prussian.
They really apply to many descendants of immigrants from Europe between 1830 and 1880.
Escaping religious constraints, economic pressures, forced military service, joblessness,
population growth, they came to the U.S.
Go back a bit farther in European history and you see the oppression, conquering, disease, slavery.
It took the Teutonic knights over 50 years to kill half the Prussians. Did all that strengthen those who were born before me, my source?
 

Bishop Hill History


 http://archive.org/stream/100yearshistoryo00ande/100yearshistoryo00ande_djvu.txt




http://www.lib.niu.edu/1999/iht629902.html




http://www.thezephyr.com/backtrack/failedutopia.htm




http://bqc.wikispaces.com/Values,+Women,+Communism,+and+the+Rise+and+Fall+of+the+Bishop+Hill+Utopia+in+Illinois

　

　

　




http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ishs-1955winter/ishs-1955winter-466.pdf

Describes the trip for Gold Rush

　




http://www.bigfootencounters.com/stories/bord_casebook.htm

Describes Bigfoot sighting…about 28 down Myrtengreen

　




http://www.illinoisancestors.org/henry/bobslist.html

List of Henry co residents

　




http://www.neabigread.org/books/myantonia/teachers/cather_handout02.pdf

Study guide Swedish and Bohemian immigrants

　




http://www.lwvil.org/downloadimm/lwvil_immigration_study_first_packet.pdf

History of Illinois Settlement

　




http://onwardtoourpast.com/Czech

About Bohemia History

　




http://www.enotes.com/topic/History_of_Slovakia

For Slovakia history

　




http://prusowie.pl/historia/who_were_the_prussians.php

Some Prussian history

　

"The German is like a willow.
No matter which way you bend him,
he will always take root again."
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn -


　

More specifically about Gerd Vor Der Mark:




http://keepersthe.blogspot.com/2007/10/johann-hindrich-johann-auf-der-heides.html

Where did they come from in the middle ages and made their name?

For some related people (some written in German):




http://www.whilgedieck.homepage.t-online.de/