"IV" one who is wise...

[Chris Boonzaier]

Do you know what the "IV" is after his name? :-)

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi Chris,

The certificate I have has "II" after the name and I always though it meant 2nd class.

At least your "Wolfie" had a first name unlike mine.

Cheers Brian (Wolfe)

[Guest Rick Research]

Since the Prussians compulsively did NOT list first names, the numeral after a last name indicates his "ranking" as the 2nd, 5th, 7th, whatever person enrolled with that last name in the same company. I've seen up to VII.

Never occurred to them to simply list by (duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh) Vornamen!

[Chris Boonzaier]

Rick nails it.

Brians guy was "Wolff two" my guy was "Wolf four"... and somewhere inbetween was "Wolf three"

Each village here has a huge base of people with the same name... We have lots of Hartlaubs, 5km away they have tons of Zahns.... as units were also regional... you had lots of potwntial for 3 or 5 or more guys with the same name.

[Ed_Haynes]

Interesting how much easier it seems to have been in a system with proper regimental numbers, where a 1234 Pvt. John Jones was distinct from a 1235 Pvt. John Jones.

[Guest Rick Research]

It just never OCCURRED to them. Things as obvious to us as alphabetization just... never seem to have even been imagined.

Before abandoning all attempts at making sense out of the madness that is the fragmentary Mecklenburg-Strelitz demented idea of award "rolls," time after time after time after.... (and they never seem to have caught on, to CORRECT the obvious shortcoming) would send out awards to "Gefreiter Schmidt" (or even "Hauptmann Schmidt") only to get irate replies back "which one?" or "you've already given him the same thing twice!!!"

That is why I Lippe Detmold's records from 1905 on: full names, dates and places of birth, place of residence, and current military unit or civilian job.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Interesting how much easier it seems to have been in a system with proper regimental numbers, where a 1234 Pvt. John Jones was distinct from a 1235 Pvt. John Jones.

HI,

would not have been possible as they did not have the same regimental system. A man could quite easily serve in 3-4 regiments during the war. That way only a centrally numbered system would work.

Joins and trains with the ersatz battalion of the X IR, gets sent to a division where he is in the replacement pool, gets sent to XX IR, gets wounded, comes back but this time to the XXX IR, by then an old sickly codger and gets sent to the XXXX LIR.

It can be seen time and again is pass books

Best

Chris

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi fellows,

Rick, you stated that the Prussians used this system. By this do you mean that only the Prussians used this system or was it wide spread throughout the German Military of the time? This is probably a pretty dumb question so please forgive it as I am just learning about Imperial and TR medals.

Cheers

Brian

[Guest Rick Research]

Candidate for World Record Holder found--

"Schmidt XIV"

on the rolls of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz Cross for Distinction in War 2nd Class (MStMV2)--

= Ersatz Reservist August Schmidt, Inf Rgt 394 in May 1918. :speechless:

[joerookery]

That is great! I have never seen one higher than four before!