The current state of research on family history of Stolberg-Wernigerode Dönhoffstädt and their archives in the State Archives in Olsztyn

Abstract

Stolbergowie-Wernigerode were an old aristocratic family, completely unknown in Polish historiography. The origins of the family, but also development of the individual lines, may be reconstructed based on the nineteenth and early twentieth-century German heraldic and genealogical publications, as well as individual biographies of members of the family. To a certain degree information collected from above resources may be completed by an album dedicated to the noble's residencies situated in the Kingdom of Prussia in the nineteenth century, and also by the book Stolberg 1210-2010. Achthundertjährigen zur Geschichte des Geschlechts published in 2010. Nevertheless, these resources do not provide a complete image of family life and their activities. In particular - omitted by researchers to date - was the Silesian branch of Stolberg-Wernigerode, which inherited the family fortune of the Prussian line of Dönhoffstädt - Dönhoff. Its fate has been recorded in family archives of Dönhoff family, preserved in the State Archives in Olsztyn. These family archives are a rich resource starting point for the family history of Stolberg-Wernigerode Dönhoffstädt. Documents regarding the following matters are of especially great value: personal relationships, family, family property, economic and administrative documents on the management of the Stolberg-Wernigerode forests in the 30s of the twentieth century. One must also mention here documents of various activities of the last owner of Dönhoffstädt - Albrecht: political, journalistic and scientific. Nevertheless, the family history of Stolberg-Wernigerode family remains unknown, and in the shadow of the House of Dönhoff.