Kremp(e)

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Created on Wednesday, 09 January 2013 13:58

Written by Ursula Holz

translated by Ingrid Seliger, January 2014 

Research in the area of Eastern Prignitz and Altmark to find the surname Kremp(e)

Already since the beginning of the 1980s I researched for the ancestors of my father named “Kremp”. By extensive researches and lucky chances I found out my ancestors. In the beginning I used the “Familienstammbuch” (official records of each family, where every member of the family and the parents and parents-in-law are registered) of my grandparents.

My grandfather Otto Kremp and my great-grandfather Wilhelm Kremp hailed from the place Werben in the Altmark. The two antecendent generations lived in Schmarsow and Christdorf (Prignitz), as I found out from the local church records.

The origin of my family can be traced back to the place Zootzen near Wittstock/Dosse (Eastern Prignitz). Which were the sources I had for researching? Fortunately I could use the registers of baptism, marriage and deaths of the church records of Zootzen which Dipl.-Ing Volker Hahn had excerpted.

In the book of the historian Johannes Schultze “Die Herrschaft Ruppin und ihre Bevölkerung nach dem 30jährigen Krieg” (The Dominion of  Ruppin and its inhabitants after the 30years War) Thewes Krempe is named as one of seven „Hüfner“ (owner of a certain estate) of Zootzen in 1652. August, 31^st, 1676 Thewes Krempe died in Zootzen. According to the register of deaths he was born in 1610 ; the place of birth is unknown.

In another book of Johannes Schultze “Die Hofbesitzer in den Dörfern des Landes Ruppin: 1491 bis 1700” (The Landowners of the villages in the area Ruppin: 1491 to 1700) Paul Crempe, son of Thewes, is registered in 1687; in the register of 1540 (Zur Zutze) you find no notice of a “Kremp”.

Maybe Thewes Krempe was a former soldier who settled in the Eastern Prignitz after the 30 years War. In that time Brandenburg had a lack of inhabitants because of the war, so new colonists settled by the “Groß Kurfürst” (title of the sovereign of Brandenburg, transl.). The competend supervisory authority of Zootzen was the Castle of Goldbeck and the shire of Ruppin. You find a lot of people with the name “Kremp” in the German parts Saarland, Rheinland and also in the (now French) Elsass; the writing of the name differs: Kremp, Krempe, Krempen, Cremp, Crempe, Krempp, Kremb, Gremp. I refer also to the family history, that published Emil Dhom: “Die Sippe Kremb-Kremp im pfälzischen Raum” (The Clan of Kremb-Kremp in the Area of Rheinland-Pfalz).

Several times during the last years I came in contact to researchers surnamed Kremp. But up to now there was no connection to my ancestors of Eastern Prignitz found out.

You can select my ancestors in the data base of family names.

I am still interested in the appearance of other Kremp families.