The Mikuteits

Mikuteit is my own surname, from my father Siegfried Mikuteit, and this name is related to the Lithuanian form of the name which is Mikkutaitis or Mikkutaitas (fem).  I am told by a Lithuanian woman that this name means something like “Son of Michael” …the implication is that those so named are descendants of Michael.  So, much like the names Michelson, or Henderson.

There are a large number of forms of this surname, as a list from a Memelland website for genealogical research of those descended from Memel area inhabitants shows:
http://www.online-ofb.de/namelist.php?nachname=MIKUTEIT&ofb=memelland&modus=&lang=de

I believe we are all related!

The Mikuteits lived in the region of East Prussia or Ostpreussen, a region now lying within the nations of Lithuania, Poland and Russia,  that used to be part of the German Empire.  This Wikipedia article describes the boundaries and history of East Prussia.  My ancestors were a mix of ethnic German with Lithuanian and other nationalities of Northwestern Europe, and may have lived, like others in this region, in this part of Prussia for many hundreds of years.  

However, during and after World War II this all changed, as this whole part of the German Empire was lost to other nations.  Those who lived in this area were forced out, and have come to be called the “German Expellees”, amidst devastation caused by the invading Russian forces.  This is a very large-scale and tragic history (millions of people were forced out of a region that had been their homeland for centuries) that has not been sufficiently understood.  It is documented in books such as A Terrible Revenge which describe as “ethnic cleansing” the forced removal of ethnic Germans from this region. In another article I will explore this tragic situation.  This article gives an introduction to the region of Prussia from the book “Forgotten Land: Journeys among the Ghosts of East Prussia.”

One of my relatives, Reinhold Mikuteit, wrote an autobiography about his life beginning in the East Prussian town of Heydekrug where he was born.  He sent me a copy of this book called “Zeitreise”, and part of it can be found online here: http://www.polizei-poeten.de/texte_pdf/Mikuteit-Biographie.pdf

 I am creating a separate blog/article to present selections from Reinhold’s book — see here:

https://mikuteitfamilytree.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/reinhold-mikuteits-zeitreise/

The Mikuteit part of my family tree was put together with assistance from my father Siegfried, from oral recollections and his written records, as well as some of my relatives in Germany, and material found on the website http://www.genealogy.net/   which provides information about inhabitants of the Memel region in East Prussia.

 

Here follows the basic genealogical story of the Mikuteit family from the oldest records I have available, to the present time:

Beginnings in Minge, East Prussia

First I will present the family tree in scanned charts — then fill in details about the various members of this family tree.

 

Going back to the children of Miks or Michael Mikuteit who was born in 1851 — first the offspring of Franz Mikuteit, from a diagram provided to me by Wolfram Mikuteit:

These are the wife/descendants of Albert Mikuteit:

Then the descendants of Josef-Ludwig Mikuteit:

And the descendants of Bernhardt Mikuteit:

These following records  show the details of my ancestors and relatives to the present day:

The oldest place location that I find for my family on my father’s side, is the town formerly called Minge, in the former East Prussia.  This was a town on the edge of the Baltic Sea, which had several canals.  Information and photos of the town can be seen here:  http://genwiki.genealogy.net/Minge_(Ort)

Minge was a seaside town full of canals

This town of Minge was the home of my great-great-great grandfather  Jurgis Mikkutaitis and his wife, Eriphrosice Baaudzeite, or Ephrosine Bauzate.

Jurgis was born in 1789, and his wife Eriphrosice was born in 1787.  They were married on January 31, 1819 in the church in Kinten, a town just to the north of Minge, also on the Baltic Sea.  This was the church where they were married:

 

 

This shows another view of the church in the town center _- Minge is in the middle on the spit of land

This map shows Minge and Kinten — Minge is in the middle on the spit of land just near where the “Lorreck Knaup” bay is shown.  Kinten is a bit to the north.

Minge on a map from 1802

Jurgis and Eriphrosice had 7 children, as shown on this record for Jurgis from the genealogy.net website: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I374861&nachname=MIKKUTATIS&lang=en

This is the record for Eriphrosice, also known as Ephrosine:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I374862&nachname=BAUZATE&lang=en

The seven children of Jurgis and Eriphrosice were:  (1) son Jons, born June 23, 1822 (2)  daughter Annusze born November 11, 1824,  (3) son Erdmons born March 3 1826, (4) Miks born February 9, 1827, (5) son Dowidas born June 2, 1830, (6) son August born June 19 1834 , (7) daughter Anne Barbe born July 26 1839.  Records of these from the genealogy.net website are shown here:

Jons:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I374863&nachname=MIKKUTAITIS&lang=en

 

Annusze:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I374864&nachname=MIKUTAITIS&lang=en

Erdmons:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I374865&nachname=MIKUTAITIS&lang=en

Miks:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I374866&nachname=MIKUTAITIS&lang=en

Dowidas:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I374867&nachname=MIKUTAITIS&lang=en

August: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I374868&nachname=MIKOTAITIS&lang=en

Anna Barbe: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I374869&nachname=MIKUTAITIS&lang=en

This firstborn child of Jurgis and Eriphrosice, Jons Mikkutaitis, was my great-great grandfather.  The family records on this genealogy.net website have gaps in them, as many records were lost, but my father’s own written records help fill in the gaps here.  The profile for Jons son of Jurgis does not show his wife or children, but there is another profile on this website with a different spelling of his name, which links him to my great-great grandmother Evtme Burkandt (from my father’s records) whose name is shown as Erdme Burkan in the genealogy.net website.

Here is Jons’ second profile record as linked with his wife Evtme or Erdme:
http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I387758&nachname=MIKKULAIT&lang=en

This Jons Mikkulait with ID#387758 is the same person as Jons Mikkutaitis with site ID# 374863 — they are both my great great grandfather.  

As well, there is a third profile for Jons Mikkutait, ID#400021, which shows him as the spouse of Erdme Mikuteit, but does not show his first name: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I400021&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

And his wife Erdme’s profile: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I387759&nachname=BURKAN&lang=en

There is another profile for Jons’ wife Erdme Burkan, the one linked to Jon’s profile that doesn’t show his first name– which shows her married surname only — this one: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I400022&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Interestingly there is a third profile that I believe could also be Jon’s wife Erdme — the name is very similar, though the birth date is off by a bit: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I377312&nachname=BURKAND&modus=&lang=en

this record shows the parents and siblings of Erdme, if indeed it is the same Erdme.  She is shown as being born in Suweinen, which I think was close to the town Minge where Erdme married Jons.

Parents were Merczcus or Martin Burkantatis and Elze Kamradtate: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I169168&nachname=BURKANTATIS&lang=en

Elze:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I169169&nachname=KAMRADTATE&lang=en

Siblings Jewa, Mikkelis and Elze are shown:

Jewa:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I169170&nachname=BURKANDTATE&lang=en

Mikkelis:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I377313&nachname=BURKANDT&lang=en

Elze:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I377314&nachname=BURKANDT&lang=en

getting back to Jons and Erdme….Jons and Erdme lived in Minge as well, and had 4 children as shown on the record for Jons above.    They were likely also married at the church in Kinten though that is not shown on their records.   Note that each of the children has a last name with different spelling! This just goes to show how much variation there could be in this Mikkutaitis name, as it was changed so much even within records on one family !  The children were: (1) Miks Mikkulait or Mikkutait born October 18 1849.   (2) Jons born Feb 20 1851, (3) Miks born January 21 1855 (4)

This is the record for the first child Miks:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I387760&nachname=MIKKULAIT&lang=en

This is the record for the second child Jons: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I387761&nachname=MIKKULAITIS&lang=en

ANother profile exists for Jons which shows him as Jons Mikutait, and shows his wife: Maria Baldzus: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I390069&nachname=MIKUTAIT&lang=en

Profile for Maria Baldzus to whom Jons was married on June 26 1877 in Szibben  : http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I390070&nachname=BALDZUS&lang=en

This is the record for the 3rd child (my great grandfather) Miks: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I391356&nachname=MIKKUTEIT&lang=en

 

This is the record for the 4th child August http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I391357&nachname=MIKKUTEITIS&lang=en

Miks Mikkuteit shown as profile ID#391356 on this site, is the same as Miks Mikuteit with profile ID#395372.  The birthdate on the former is given exactly as January 21 1855, but on the latter profile it is only given as 1855.  This is the same person.  Other aspects of these two profiles match as well, such as the name of Mik’s mother and name and birthdate (1851) of one of his siblings, Jons. This profile adds another sibling, a fifth child of Jons Mikkutaitis and Erdme, namely Erdme Eva, born 1863.

Profile for Erdme Eva:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I390380&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

That 2nd profile above shows the wife and children of my great-grandfather Miks Mikuteit.  He was married to Heinriette Johanne Anne Saletzki, shown born in 1861 but my father’s records show her born on April 3rd, 1860.
This is her profile:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395373&nachname=SALETZKI&modus=&lang=en

My great-grandfather Miks and his wife Heinriette Johanne Anne lived in Paszelischken, where all their children were born.  This website shows information on this town: http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Paszelischken

This photo shows an old gravestone in Paszelischken:

This map shows Paszelischken to the east of Heydekrug:

My great grandfather Miks and his wife Anne had fourteen children, but several of them died very young.  These children were as follows:  (1) Franz Michael, born February 10 1881 (2)Martha Maria born Feb 10 1881 (died age 1 — a twin of Franz Michael born on the same day as he) (3) Anna born April 13 1883  (4) Albert born December 22 1885 (5) Maria born  February 5 1888 and died 2 years later (6) Michael born July 7 1890 (7) August born June 15 1892 (8) Emma born June 13 1894 (9) Bernhardt born May 27 1896  (10) Heinrich born June 10 1898 (11) Josepha born July 22 1899 and died 2 weeks later (11) Helene born Feb 6 1901 and died a month later (12) Bernd born May 1 1902 and died about 6 months later (13) Hedwig born July 1 1908 and died 2 months later.  Also one more which is not shown on this list, but known by my father and our other relatives, (14) Josef-Ludwig born _____.  (out of 14 children, 6 died within 2 years of their birth)

These are the records for these children:

Franz Michael Mikuteit  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395379&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Martha Maria Mikuteit (who died about one month old) http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395380&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Anna Mikuteit born April 13 1883: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395381&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Albert Mikuteit born December 22 1885   http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395375&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Maria Mikuteit born February 5, 1888 in Paszelischken and died at about 2 yrs old on October 15 1890 http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I390227&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

 

Michael Mikuteit born July 7 1890 : http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395377&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

August Mikuteit born June 15 1892 in Paszelischken:  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395376&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Emma Mikuteit born June 13 1894 in Paszelischken: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I390226&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

My grandfather Bernhardt Mikuteit born May 27 1896 in Paszelischken: http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395378&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Heinrich Mikuteit born June10 1898 in Paszelischken  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395382&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Josepha Mikuteit was born July 22 1899 in Paszelischken and died August 2 1899.  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I395374&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Helene Mikuteit was born February 6 1901 in Paszelischken and died March 30 1901.   She was buried April 3 1901 in Werdenberg.  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I400024&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

This map shows Werdenberg to the east of Szibben:

Bernd Mikuteit was born May 1 1902 in Paszelischken and died October 25 1902.  He is buried in Werdenberg as well, buried there on October 29 1902.  http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I400023&nachname=MIKETEIT&lang=en

Hedwig Mikuteit born July 1 1908 and died on SEpt 14 1908, buried also in Werdenberg on SEptember 17 1908. http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=memelland&ID=I400025&nachname=MIKUTEIT&lang=en

Then there is one additional child of Miks Mikuteit and Anna Saletzki not listed in these records, Josef-Ludwig Mikuteit.

Before going further forward into the present time with the children of these children of Miks and Anna, I want to go back to Miks Mikuteit’s sister Erdme Eva Mikuteit, born in 1863, (her profile is here) and record the records of her husband and children.  These will be continued on another article/blog, under the surname of her husband, Lampsat.  Find that article here.

Albert Mikuteit and his children:

Albert Mikuteit married Elisabeth Klapper.  They had four children — Christel Mikuteit, born Feb 1 1919, Gertraud Mikuteit born June 30 1921, and Reinhold MIkuteit born July 17 1920.  Reinhold is the one who wrote the book “Zeitreise” which I look into in another article on this website.

Reinhold Mikuteit

Reinhold married Gisela Schacht, born July 7 1925.  Together they had four children.

The Family of Franz Michael Mikuteit

The Family of Josef-Ludwig Mikuteit

The Family of Bernhardt Mikuteit

I visited Germany once, in September 1981, with my father, to visit some of my relatives.  At the time of this visit I was 19 years old.  This map shows where my father Siegfried and I traveled during this trip:

 

Starting at Frankfurt, we visited Heidelburg, then Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and then Wurzburg, Kassel, Gottingen where my grandfather Bernhard Mikuteit lived with his second wife Maria (born Meierhofe) and the border with East Germany at Duderstadt.  Then up to Hanover and a visit to Papenburg to visit my great aunt Emma Mikuteit.  Then to Oldenburg, Bremen and finally Hamburg where we visited with my father’s cousin Lieschen Mikuteit, and her husband Wolfgang Dwenger and their family.  I remember trying to talk to them and their children in German.
THis photo shows my father Siegfried, his sister Eva, and their father and my grandfather Bernhard Mikuteit, with his second wife Maria Meierhofe.

 

This is another photo of my grandfather Bernhard taken in 1977:

Maria and my father talking on a walkway near Gottingen:

This photo shows my father Siegfried, my great aunt Emma Mikuteit, and Maria when we visited Emma in Bockhorst or Papenburg.

Only a few months after I visited with my great aunt Emma Mikuteit, she passed away, and this is the notice from the church about her death:

My grandmother Martha Mikuteit, Bernhard’s first wife and my father Siegfried’s mother, had died before I was born.  We visited her grave which I believe was in the Harz mountains region, and I took this photo of her grave stone:

This is an early

Martha Mikuteit

photo of Martha Mikuteit with her children Eva and Siegfried, my aunt and father.

My father Siegfried Mikuteit emigrated to the United STates in 1952, traveling aboard the SS General Harry Taylor ship.  He arrived in the US on March 29 1952.

This is the Ellis Island manifest showing his arrival in the US on March 29 1952, from Bremerhaven GermanY:

This ship was later named the General Hoyt S Vandenburg, and was sunk off the coast of Florida in 2007 to create an artifical reef:

Siegfried went back to Germany on Sept 25 1956, aboard the Trans World Airlines.

He went back to visit Germany in 1957-8, around the time he and my mother had been married, and then returned to New York on January 21 1958 aboard the SS America, as shown in this record:

His address at this time as 3567 Blanche Ave, Cleveland Heights.  This is that house:

“3567 Blanche Ave, Cleveland Heights, OH is a single family home that contains 1,298 sq ft and was built in 1925. It contains 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. This home last sold for $23,000 in November 2016. “

My father Siegfried submitted a petition to become a US Citizen in ___ and on it indicated that he had served in US Military service (the Korean War) from Nov 10 1953.  

His place of birth is listed there as Pagrienen, Germany — it was actually in East Prussia, and the town Pagrienen ceased to exist — the town name was changed and its original inhabitants had to flee.

A German genealogy website summarizes some information about Pagrienen:
http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Pagrienen

There is also a group for people doing family research related to relatives who came out of Memelland:
http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Familienforschung_Memelland

Memelland information:
http://www.online-ofb.de/memelland/

Group for family research for Memelland origins:

http://www.vffow.de/default.htm