Local heritage book Inse and Surroundings

The parish of Inse lay in the District of Elchniederung (until 1938: District Niederung) in northern East Prussia, and encompassed the lagoon villages of Inse, Loye and Tawe on the Kurischer Haff, as well as other smaller settlements further inland, namely Löckerort, Pait, Kumzoge, Augstutt and Siberien. These settlements were for the most part abandoned at the end of the 19th century, or for example in Pait, bought up by the Forestry Commission, and in the 20th century there were no more independent residences.

The lagoon village of Inse up until about 1933 consisted of two independent communities, divided only by the Inse River. Alt Inse and Gross Inse, which were frequently differentiated from each other as Inse Domain Kuckerneese (Inse Kuck) and Inse Domain Seckenburg (Inse Seck). Sometimes they were simply known as Inse without any distinguishing names.

Church in Inse 1936

The Church Books of Inse Parish exist as microfilm for the time period of 1768 to 1874. The present online Local Heritage Book represents the current collection status (ca. 1790 to 1874) and should be completed over time. Insights gained through questioning earlier inhabitants or former inhabitants of the lagoon villages, or their descendants, are presented allowing for confidentiality rules, whereby I consciously do not present perons who were born in 1910 and later (it may be that these data are already available for freely available online in another site.)

Most of the inhabitants were Lutheran.The few Catholic inhabitants belonged to the parish of Schillgallen. Notably, births and deaths were also often registered in the Lutheran Church Book; marriages however only seldom, insofar as the Local Heritage Book (still) is incomplete.

The people in Inse Parish were fishermen and vegetable farmers, often both at the same time. The gardens yielded especially onions and cucumbers in large quantity and good quality, which were until the 20th century brought by boat up to the weekly markets in Königsberg and Tilsit and sold there.

As of 1880 there was an intensive wave of emigration of young people from the lagoon villages. In addition to Königsberg and Tilsit the designated destinations of the emigrants were the Ruhr area, North America and the north German port cities (with shipyards and marinas.) However, even earlier that, a few, mostly young men, went beyond the next town. These destinations are well known mostly because it was a journey with no return and the Pastor conscientiously noted the deaths from outside the area in the Church Book, regardless of whether the death occurred in Königsberg, in Singapore (sailor 1870), in Cologne (a soldier 1864) or on the battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars.

Population expansion

Parish of Inse today

Nowadays only Inse still exists. Today the village is called Pricaly and lies in Rayon Slawsk (Heinrichswalde) in Königsberg territory. People living there today also support themselves by cultivating vegetables and fishing. About 7 kilometers inland the hunting lodge Pait still exists, in which Kaiser Wilhelm II once lived when he went elk hunting.

“Surroundings” The inhabitants of the parish had diverse familial contacts in the neighboring parishes, namely the parish of Kallningken (as of 1938 Herdenau), which until 1920 belonged to District Heydekrug and after that to District Elchniederung; the parish of Alt Lappienen (as of 1938 Rauterskirch); in the District of Elchniederung and in the Parish of Gilge (District of Labiau). The familial contacts in the Gilge Church Book mainly involve families in Tawe and go especially to Gilge and Nemonien (as of 1938 Elchwerder). Occasionally familial connections can also be established to the neighboring Kurische Spit.

The expression “umzu” means “surrounding area.” In connection with this Local Heritage Book it means that I have included quite a few data from the surrounding parishes of Gilge, Kallningken and Alt Lappienen, if they have familiar connections to Inse. The data of the parish of Kallnigken (Herdenau) you now find in the Local Heritage Book of Karkeln.

Remarks:

Connections exist between this Local Heritage Book and that of Memelland, since the Parish of Inse is geographically situated directly near Memelland (although south of the Memel) in the Memel delta. (See the map in Local Heritage Book Memelland). Furthermore, there are connections to the Local Heritage Book of Russ.

Also the spelling guidelines and various use of first names corresponds to the Local Heritage Book of Memelland. It is also worth noting that the spelling of names was never exact, so often even within the same entry the family name is written differently.

The present database represents the actual result. Many familial connections have not been ascertained conclusively; many persons appear more than once, for example in first and second marriages, if it is not yet certain whether or not it is the same person, or as is often the case, whether it deals with another person by the same name.

Inquiries, corrections, additions and other references are always welcome.

Katharina Schroeter
Winfridweg 10
22529 Hamburg
kirchspiel_inse@yahoo.de