Queries specific to NRW

Queries specific to Stemwede

Historical maps
Do research using maps of historical regions of what is now Germany. There are also links to maps of Prussia, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Europe.From the website of Thomas Höckmann (in German).

History of NRW, 1946 - 2002.

North Rhine-Westphalia includes the former Prussian province of Westfalen, the northern portion of the Prussian Rheinprovinz, and the principality of Lippe - Detmold . Westfalen and Rheinprovinz were combined August 23, 1946 by the British military government and Lippe-Detmold added six months later.

The coat of arms of North Rhine-Westphalen includes references to all three; the stream from Rheinland, the steed from Westfalen and the rose from Lippe.

Within the state are five districts - see Map of NRW. Each district is divided into Kreise (Counties, there are 31 in all with 373 communities) and 23 Kreisfreistädte (larger cities that do not belong to a county). Many towns are actually made of of a larger town and several smaller ones. Thirty cities have over 100,000 inhabitants. Click here to see complete list.

NRW has 17.8 million inhabitants, 52% female and 48% male and is the most densly populated state of the Federal Republic. Two thirds of NRW is lowland: The Lower Rhine and Westphalian Bay. One third is mountainous: Eifel, Hohes Venn, Saurland, Bergriches Land, Siegerland, Teutoberger Forest, Egge and Wessserbergland. See map.

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany regulates the responsibilities for legislation between community associations and states. The NRW Constitution seperates powers into legislative, administrative and adjudicative. Legislation must be done by the people and the Parliment, administration by the government and judicial by independent judges. There are two regional councils (Landschaftsverbände), which are regional municipal associations of the towns and districts in NRW; Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) and Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL). They roughly correspond in area and influence to the old Prussian Provinvial Federations.

If you are interested in genealogical investigation resrouces, here are some suggestions. Subscibe to mailing lists where you can communicate your requests and information to others interested in the same thing yor are. Click here to find out about mailing lists.

If you don't know a town name, post your query in the first known residence in the US (USGenWeb ), or other country in WorldGenWeb or in the unknown county area on GermanyGenWeb.

A special thanks to Jim Hickman who originally developed this website.