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Unidentified Fircks photograph

The frustrations of old unidentified family photographs

Is there anything more frustrating than inheriting a lot of family photographs which are not identifiable? I almost think it is worse to have photographs which only have one word on the back – and especially when that word is illegible. Such is the case with the photograph above. On

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He Protected His Family and Estates from the Ravages of War

One of my more interesting ancestors, who I must do more research about, is my six times paternal great grandfather, Carl von Fircks. Thank goodness my cousin Wolf Lackschewitz published the Fircks genealogical records, from which I have taken information below. Carl von Fircks was born, married, died and was

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Digging into the roots to discover the beginning

I am incredibly lucky that my cousin, Wolf Lackschewitz, compiled a detailed genealogy of my father’s family – the Fircks. Unfortunately for me, the collection he wrote is in German. Slowly I have begun to translate it. For this post, I thought I would go back to nearly the beginning,

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The Eldest of Seven, Husband of Two and Father of Eight

Although I have written about his two marriages before, I have not yet looked for more information about my paternal great grandfather, Otto von Fircks – pictured above. Despite having plenty of genealogical information about him, I have not been able to find out much about him as a person,

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Were they the best days of his life?

As the saying goes, school days are the best days  of our lives – or are they? I tend to think the days we spend in school are not memorable for the education we receive, but for the friendships we make and the lack of responsibility we have. It is

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