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Von Keil - Search for Grandfather

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ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

Zane

Zane Report 31 May 2020 16:07

Wow... That's a lot of camps! And that's amazing you can get the Danzig phone book!!!! Now what I need to do is find out who his father was! If his father was about five in 1900 and has some connection to the Lodz then there is reasonable chance it was him.

Maddie

Maddie Report 31 May 2020 14:26

probably unrelated

in the Germany and Surrounding Areas, Address Books, 1815-1974

Name: Gerda Keil
Gender: weiblich (Female)
Residence Date: 1942
Address: Birkenallco 3a
Residence Place: Danzig (Gdansk), Polen (Poland)
Occupation: lochn Assistn
Title: Danziger Einwohnerbuch mit allen eingemeindeten Vororten und Zoppo

Name: Gerda Keil
Gender: weiblich (Female)
Residence Date: 1940-1941
Address: Birkenallee 3a
Residence Place: Danzig (Gdansk), Polen (Poland)
Occupation: lochn Assistn
Title: Danziger Einwohnerbuch mit allen Vororten und Zoppot


ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 31 May 2020 14:24

Other WW2 POW camps in Gloucestershire:

Sudley Castle Camp, Winchcombe

Wynolls Hill, Broadwell, Coleford

Wapley Camp, Yate, Bristol

Ashtongate Camp / Bedminster Camp, Ashton gate, Bristol

Northwick Park Hospital, Blockley

Springhill Lodge Camp, Five Mile Drive, Blockley

Bourton Camp, Bourton-on-the-Hill

Leckhampton Court Camp, Leckhampton, Cheltenham

Northway Camp, Ashchurch



But of course we don't know if he was a soldier, let alone a POW, and even if he was, he could have been held anywhere in the UK.

Zane

Zane Report 31 May 2020 14:04

There was a prisoner of war camp nearby... Woodfield Farm Camp, Churchdown Gloucestershire

Zane

Zane Report 31 May 2020 13:54

Thanks a lot! It could make sense that he was send to work on a farm in Gloucestershire and that's the link to wooton! Funnily enough I was talking to a friend of mine on VE day who was evacuated from Newcastle to a country farm in Northumbria where German prisoners of war were sent.

ArgyllGran

ArgyllGran Report 31 May 2020 13:43

Link to info about looking for German POWs in the UK, as Maddie suggests:

https://tinyurl.com/tvox4as

Maddie

Maddie Report 31 May 2020 13:39

you could try the national archives for german prisoners of war records

Zane

Zane Report 31 May 2020 13:19

I am looking for a the man who fathered a child in wooton under edge in exactly 1951. It was in fact september 1951. The child was registered as being the son of the man the woman was married too, however he was not. A genetic test has shown that we have cousins in a mixed german\polish family in Silesia, modern day Poland. It is them that have given us the surname Von Keil. Sadly that branch of the family is unknown to them after the accident in 1900 resulted in all the kids going to an orphanage. So I am looking for a con keil, probably just keil due to German abolishion of the monarchy in 1919 who was born about 1920 and ended up in england shortly after the war...

Zane

Zane Report 31 May 2020 13:09

Wow, that's really interesting! Where did you find that??? That's weird cause I'm a navigator... But for ships not airplanes. Wrong side of the war though!!! Sure he wasn't free polish??? Lol!

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 31 May 2020 13:03

Definitely not...........at least until 1970.

Google for info about what is on UK certs

I thought you wanted to identify the man who fathered a child - presumably in Wotton under Edge in about 1951????????

Maddie

Maddie Report 31 May 2020 12:41

for what it is worth from a tree on family search

Alfred Keil
View Tree
Sex
Male

Birth
17 August 1923
Gdansk

Death
17 October 1991
Lutterworth, Leics



MARRIAGES (1)
Spouse
Gerda Emma Elisabeth Dekowski

Marriage
15 April 1954
London



NOTES (2)
During WWII, Alfred was with the German Luftwaffe working as a navigator. He flew in the tail section of planes - a very dangerous place - and I believe was shot down over England. He became a prisoner of war. After the war, it took him 8 years to trace his family back in Germany.
Gerda and Alfred met when they were both working at the German Embassy in London after WWII. Gerda had moved to the UK when working as a nanny. Alfred had been a prisoner of war and settled in England. When they were married, one of them had to give up working at the Germany Embassy, as married couples could not work together. Gerda stayed at the Embassy and Alfred got work in the shoe industry - I believe buying leather for the company he worked for.
Show Les

gerda's father

Joseph Dekowski
View Tree
Sex
Male

Birth
10 September 1886
Lissewo/Kulm

Death
20 December 1959
Berlin



MARRIAGES (1)
Spouse
Martha Mathilde Franziska Maronn

Marriage
28 April 1914
Treblin, Pomerania


NOTES (1)
Joseph was a master cobbler in Berlin. He made shoes and boots for the disabled. In WWII he made boots for the Nazis in Berlin. When the Russians invaded Berlin, his daughter, Gerda, was wearing a pair of his boots. A Russian soldier saw them and told her to take them off and give them to him. Gerda refused and lived to tell the tale.

gerda

Gerda Emma Elisabeth Dekowski
View Tree
Sex
Female

Birth
8 September 1923
Berlin

Death
estimated 2014


PARENTS
Father
Joseph Dekowski

Mother
Martha Mathilde Franziska Maronn

Father
Willi Ott

Mother
Marta Mattick

MARRIAGES (1)
Spouse
Alfred Keil

Marriage
15 April 1954
London

Zane

Zane Report 31 May 2020 12:08

My marriage certificate has country of birth on it but not place and it has fathers name... Would they still have this information on marriage certificates from the 50s?

Zane

Zane Report 31 May 2020 12:06

The aim isn't to prove he was in Wooton under edge, it is to tie him to one of the dangling limbs of our polish cousins family tree. Keil is not a very common name outside of Germany so if it traces back to Poland their is a good chance he is a son of the missing brothers... So he died in market harborough?

ErikaH

ErikaH Report 31 May 2020 11:34

There is absolutely nothing to suggest he was born in the UK.

You have been given his death, which includes D O B, not its location

The death cert should say where he was born - IF the informant knew

Order certs from the following:-

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates

BUT...........none of these documents will give you any proof that he was the man who was in Wotton Under Edge in 1951

Zane

Zane Report 31 May 2020 08:11

Thank you Shirley! We expect that my grandfather was born around 1920, so that's close. We had assumed he was born in Poland though not really based on anything... We never thought he could be born here. Obviously its a stretch, but everything is a stretch at this point with so little to go on, what if Abraham Keil from Poland born 1894 is his father! Such a pity I didn't start to look sooner!!! I use to live next to Newark! I could have just asked Gerda!!! I'm very new too all this, so the marriage certificate should have his fathers name if known on it? How do I get a copy of a marriage certificate? Write to the registry? I can get a copy of his birth certificate from market harborough right? :0)

Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it

Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it Report 31 May 2020 07:15

And his wife

Ms Gerda Emma Elisabeth Keil
Gender: Female
Age: 87
Birth Date: 8 Sep 1923
Last Residence: Newark, Nottinghamshire, England
Postal Code District: NG24
Death Date: 25 Feb 2010

Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it

Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it Report 31 May 2020 07:14

That Alfred was born 1923


Name: Alfred Paul Keil
Death Age: 68
Birth Date: 17 Aug 1923
Registration Date: Oct 1991
Registration district: Market Harborough
Inferred County: Leicestershire
Volume: 6
Page: 2310

Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it

Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it Report 31 May 2020 07:10

Get the marriage cert
It will give his age and fathers name if known

Zane

Zane Report 30 May 2020 20:42

Alfred p keil is the name of the guy who married in 1954. He married a woman called Dekowski.

Zane

Zane Report 30 May 2020 20:42

Alfred p keil is the name of the guy who married in 1954. He married a woman called Dekowski.