research in family history

[Juliane Langer]

I am writing to you as part of my research into my family history. My great uncle Ludwig Konjetschni (Ludvík Konečný) was once the owner of the cabaret Eldorado in Berlin Motzstraße.

He fled Berlin in 1933, first to Czechoslovakia, later emigrating with his wife to southern France, and in 1939 they both emigrated to Australia.

During his time in France (1934-1938), he wrote a pamphlet against a new war. With it he is said to have traveled to Norway. During his 3-month stay, he is said to have chosen various churches to present his pamphlet.

This is the vague recollection of his daughter, now 79 years old. He is said to have returned without his manuscript. So he must have left it in Norway in one of the churches. Unfortunately I don't know if this manuscript had a title, only that it has a white cover with a red cross.

In any case, I have a small hope that this manuscript still exists and that I will find it. Perhaps you have an idea who I could contact in Norwegian church and historian circles.

I would be very grateful for your help.

Best regards from Berlin,

Juliane Langer

[Jackie K Marler]

Sorry to intrude, I have no connections to the Norwegian church and only glancing with Norwegian historians.  I did an exact search for Ludwig using the two renderings of his name at the Norwegian national library internet searchable site but generated no response from the search engine for either spelling.  Likewise a search at Elephind.com found none. 

 

Good luck with your search.

[Juliane Langer]

Thank you!

[Ivar S. Ertesvåg]

På 5.9.2023 den 10.52, Juliane Langer skrev:

This is the vague recollection of his daughter, now 79 years old. He is said to have returned without his manuscript. So he must have left it in Norway in one of the churches. Unfortunately I don't know if this manuscript had a title, only that it has a white cover with a red cross.

 

In any case, I have a small hope that this manuscript still exists and that I will find it. Perhaps you have an idea who I could contact in Norwegian church and historian circles.

 

We could easily list a number of reasons why this will be difficult and unlikely to trace ... - but this you already are aware of.

 

One approach would be to limit the possibilities:  What about language?

A presentation has to be understood - thus: which language might your grand uncle have used?

I assume that what in memory is "churches" might include meeting houses/asembly halls of different kinds.

(I noticed tat the daughter "now 79" must have been born after emigration to Australia. Her memory is about what she was told at least a decade after the visit to Norway.)

Did he belong to/cooperate with some movement or organization?

 

Another approach would be to do as Jackie has done: search the collection of scanned newspapers (and magazines, books, etc) at the national library.

Far from all newpapers are scanned, but quite a few are available.

It can be either an announcement of the presentation, or an (editorial) mention of it (before or after).

The issue is how would this be presented - i.e. which words/phrases to search for. 

Another issue is how would his name be spelled in a Norwegian newspaper in the 1930s?

(An additional challenge:  What we can search for, is the spelling as understood by the software converting scanned images to text. )

 

 

 

[Juliane Langer]

Thank you for your suggestions!

Meanwhile I found Ludwigs passport. It´s a czech passport with a third notation of his surname: Konieczny. Now I can exactly date his entry in Oslo at 2nd August 1937.

Ludwig did not belong to any organisation or movement. From their escape from Berlin in 1933 until their emigration to Australia in 1939, they continued to face Nazi persecution. They had to change location 8 times through half of Europe.

[Jackie K Marler]

 

 

Lots of mentions with that surname in Norwegian online sources search at Norwegian National Library  https://www.nb.no/search but not Ludwig that I can see, earliest newspaper date of 1948.  Also text search at scanned documents in the Archives online didn't find one mention.  Here is the uncorrected OCR read of his legal change of name to Louis Conney in Australia in 1939. 

• The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Wed 19 Jul 1939 Page 20 Advertising

 

 

I, LOUIS CONNEY, heretofore called «nd kno.
1 by the name, of LUDWIG , KONIECZNY, of 2
Roslyn Road. Ell&nbeth Bay. Sydney, Restaurateur,
hereby give Public Notice thal on the fourteenth

day of July. 1039. I formally nnri absolutely »»- 1
,nounccd...relinquished, and abandoned the use

mv said Chrlstlnn name und surname of LUDWIG I
KONIECZNY and then assumed and adopted nnd

determined thereinafter on all occasions Whatsoever 1
tb use and subscribe the Christian name and sur-
name of LOUIS CONNEY Instead of thc said Chrls
,tlan name and surname of LUDWIG KONIECZNY.
>And. 1 give further notice that hy a Memorandum
dated fourteenth day of July, 1939, duly executed
,and r attested. 1 formally and absolutely renounced
«nd abandoned Hie said Christian name and sur
'name of LUDWIG KONIECZNY and declared that 1
'had assumed and adopted and intended thence

forth'.upon all occasions whatsoever to use and
.subscribe the Christian name and surname of
LOUIS CONNEY Instead of LUDWIG KONIECZNY,
innd.so as to be at all times thereinafter called.
.known, and described by the Christian name and
surname of LOUIS CONNEY exclusively. Dated this
fourteenth day of July. 1939. LOUIS CONNEY, late
LUDWIG KONIECZNY._
MALLEYS. ÚMñÍ

 

• The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Tue 28 Sep 1948 Page 7   Col 4  Advertising

You probably know all this.  He also had at least one and maybe more restaurants in Australia, probably won a lottery?  If you want more of this I'd direct you to https://trove.nla.gov.au/

Endret September 8, 2023 av Jackie K Marler

[Juliane Langer]

Thank you for your efforts.

If the manuscript still exists and the databases do not give anything, it can only be found in some church or other library. That´s why I

spread my request to many different norwegian adresses, hoping that anybody remembers to have seen it (white cover with red cross) somewhere....