Masuria and the Osterode uplands — Szczytno, Olsztynek and Iława
Szczytno, Olsztynek, Iława. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.
Whose archive this ground was
| Years | Who held it | Whose archive that means |
|---|---|---|
| 1224–1466 | Teutonic Order | no registers survive Before registers. The Order held the region from 1224 to 1525 and was defeated by Polish-Lithuanian forces at Grunwald in 1410. |
| 1466–1525 | Teutonic Order as a fief of the Polish Crown | Geneteka · Szukaj w Archiwach · FamilySearch The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) restored the Order's authority over the region as a fief of the Polish Crown. |
| 1525–1701 | Duchy of Prussia | FamilySearch · Archion The Order was secularised in 1525 and Albert of Prussia turned Lutheran, bringing the region into Protestantism. |
| 1701–1871 | Kingdom of Prussia | FamilySearch · Archion The region became part of the Kingdom of Prussia when Frederick I was crowned at Königsberg in 1701. |
| 1871–1920 | German Empire — East Prussia | FamilySearch · Archion Polish-language lessons were removed from schools in 1872. The Standesamt system began in Prussia in October 1874 and applied across Germany from the start of 1876. |
| 1920–1945 | East Prussia — after the 1920 plebiscite | FamilySearch · Archion In the plebiscite of 11 July 1920 about 99.32% of voters in Masuria proper chose to remain in East Prussia. |
| 1945–2026 | Poland | Geneteka · Szukaj w Archiwach · FamilySearch The region passed to Poland under the Yalta and Potsdam decisions in 1945; most Germans were expelled and the remaining Masurians underwent a nationality verification. Szczytno appears as Ortelsburg in German records. |
The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.
See the whole span, 1224–2026, on the map →
The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.