The Borns from whom I am descended originated in Pomerania (German Pommern), a strongly Protestant, Lutheran province of the German kingdom of Prussia. Parts of Prussia, including eastern Pomerania where my ancestors lived, were given to Poland at the end of World War II.

This map shows the province of Pomerania. The purple/pink line represents the present-day border between Germany on the left and Poland on the right. The home of the Borns was the village Schoenhagen, which is not shown on the above map. It is six miles southwest of the city of Naugard, shown a little bit below the center of the map as both Naugard (the German name) and Nowogard (the present-day Polish name).

My forebears in Prussia, disturbed by the increasing militarism of the government headed by Otto von Bismarck, made the decision to quietly emigrate to America in the 1870's and 1880's. By so doing, they doubtlessly saved their sons from the trenches of World War I, and their grandsons from service in Hitler's army during World War II.