Beirn-Trier

We are contacting you in reply to your E-mail reference question: Can staff at Chicago Public Library find any information about a town called, "Beirn-Trier", that existed in the German empire circa 1836?

One of our staff members who has a knowledge of German and has done some German genealogical research has performed research in German gazetteers and German websites to arrive at a best guess regarding the hyphenated word, "Beirn-Trier."

In doing German genealogical research, there are often misspellings of German words into the English language and changes of German spellings. If one pronounces the word, "Beirn," in German, it sounds like the English words "bye yearn" or, in German, the correct spelling would be Bayern that is Bavaria in English. Going back into German history, there were two Bayerns or Bavarias in Germany in the mid-1800's. See the following website and click on the map, "1815-1871 Unification of Germany."

http://www.progenealogists.com/germany/germaps.htm

You will note that there is a smaller "Rhenish Bavaria" to the west of the larger "Bavaria".

Go, in turn, to a history of Bavaria such as the following Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavaria Either select or scroll down to the section, "Kingdom of Bavaria." Immediately beneath the heading is a subheading, "Main article-Kingdom of Bavaria." Click on this subheading which yields the following web link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Bavaria Here you will find another map that shows the two Bavarias.

The region has also become a part of the area in Germany called the Palatinate. In the following article, the second map showing the regions of the Palatinate shows Trier as part of that area noted with the initials, "TR".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenish_Bavaria

Thus, the best guess we have for "Beirn-Trier" or "Bayern-Trier" (Bavaria-Trier) could refer either to the region in the German empire at that time or the town of Trier in the western Bavaria (Bayern) region of Germany also designated as part of the Palatinate.

More websites to explore regarding this issue include the following:

http://www.progenealogists.com/germany/gazetteersmain.html

https://www.progenealogists.com/germangazetteersonline.htm

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1074 The Meyers Gazetteer of the German Empire is available for searching at any Chicago Public Library location through the Ancestry database.

http://www.cyndislist.com/germany.htm See the section entitled, "Maps, Gazetteers, and Geographical Information."

You also might contact the following resource: The Wilmette Historical Museum & Wilmette Historical Society 609 Ridge Road, Wilmette, IL 60091 Telephone: (847) 853-7666 Fax: (847) 853-7706

You may find this web site/library helpful in your research: Newberry Library 60 W. Walton St. – Chicago, IL - 60610 312–943–9090 http://www.newberry.org/ Reference contact: reference@newberry.org (312) 255-3506 The Newberry Library is an independent research library. Free and open to the public, it houses an extensive non-circulating collection of rare books, maps, and manuscripts. Admission to the Library is by library card. Procedures for getting a card are similar to those of the Chicago Public Library: each reader registers annually by showing government-issued photo identification and proof of current address and by completing a registration form.

Thank you for contacting Chicago Public Library.