aramsay Posted 20 January , 2020 Share Posted 20 January , 2020 I have a a half German Erkennungsmarke / i.d. tag I thought I'd have a wee shot at researching. The full text as appears.... WILH. ANGERSTEIN MERSEBURG.NORDSTR.12 14.1.88 II ERS. BATL. J.R. 72. 2. KOMP. NR. 3722 I assumed the chaps name was Wilhelm, and that he was in the Jaeger Regiment.72....as it's definitely a "J" stamped I can't find a Jaeger Regt. 72 anywhere on the web or in my books. Can someone advise a novice on this ? Being a half-tag, I had a look on the Kriegsgraeberstaetten website, and there 2 possible Wilhelm Angersteins.... 1. died 8/9/1914 at Fere Champenoise, buried Connantre 2. died 24/3/1918, buried Maisseny, Aisne If I can confirm the unit, hopefully I can narrow down where they were on each of above dates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fritz Posted 20 January , 2020 Share Posted 20 January , 2020 I think this is your man. Infanterieregiment 72. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fritz Posted 20 January , 2020 Share Posted 20 January , 2020 angerstein2.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aramsay Posted 20 January , 2020 Author Share Posted 20 January , 2020 Quick reply ! Thanks. Why did they stamp with a "J" for "Infantrie" ? I can see the entry..... What does the "4 . 1" mean ? Also, what is the word before Wolfenbuettel ? It's a long way between Wolfenbuettel and Merseburg as staped on the tag.....I found Merseburg way down near Leipzig / Halle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Lowrey Posted 20 January , 2020 Share Posted 20 January , 2020 German at the time didn't have separate letters for "I" and "J". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWK Posted 21 January , 2020 Share Posted 21 January , 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, aramsay said: Quick reply ! Thanks. Why did they stamp with a "J" for "Infantrie" ? I can see the entry..... What does the "4 . 1" mean ? Also, what is the word before Wolfenbuettel ? It's a long way between Wolfenbuettel and Merseburg as staped on the tag.....I found Merseburg way down near Leipzig / Halle. Warle, Wolfenbüttel. means he was from/born in Warle, near Wolfenbüttel, on 14th January (14.1) IR 72 was from Bernburg, just south of Magdeburg, some 50 km from Merseburg. Maybe he/his parents moved from Wolfenbüttel to Merseburg, and he joined the army locally. Edited 21 January , 2020 by JWK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie2 Posted 21 January , 2020 Share Posted 21 January , 2020 Fritz found the right man, the Vermisstenliste http://des.genealogy.net/wk1vermisste/search/index record his NoK living at Nordstr. 12. He was wounded 1914 with IR 72, again in 1915 with RIR 264, again on 03.09.1917 (Regt unknown) and finally KiA while serving with No. 3 Coy, Füsilier Regiment 36. Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AOK4 Posted 21 January , 2020 Share Posted 21 January , 2020 Isn't there anything on the back? As the Erkennungsmarke has only a high Ersatz-Bataillon number, this was probably issued at some point when he was back in Germany after being wounded (my guess would be somewhere in 1917). Beware, he is is not buried in Maissemy as he only went missing in July 1918. I must say that I have reservations about owning half a identity disc of a missing soldier. Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aramsay Posted 21 January , 2020 Author Share Posted 21 January , 2020 Thank you all for replies. It's great to see extracts from German sources. I have attached a couple photos of the tag. The reverse does indeed have something on it.....I never noticed it before.....it has.... "F.R. 36 3.K 1182" Which matches perfectly with above. I would still, however, like to know why they stamped a "J" instead of "I" for I.R.72 ? There are four other "I" characters on the tag, so what was the reason for using a "J" ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AOK4 Posted 21 January , 2020 Share Posted 21 January , 2020 (edited) The capital "i" as a first letter of a word is always written as "J" in German at that time. Roman numbers remained "I" and the others are "i's" in the middle of a word. (I'm not a linguist, but that's more or less how it was) I hope the identity disc was not taken from remains by some grave-robbers... Edited 21 January , 2020 by AOK4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aramsay Posted 21 January , 2020 Author Share Posted 21 January , 2020 7 minutes ago, AOK4 said: The capital "i" as a first letter of a word is always written as "J" in German at that time. Roman numbers remained "I" and the others are "i's" in the middle of a word. (I'm not a linguist, but that's more or less how it was) I hope the identity disc was not taken from remains by some grave-robbers... Yes, the J & I thing makes sense....thanks. As for where it came from, we'll never know.....I got it at an antique fair / Flohmarkt in North of England. At least we are remembering Wilhelm by discussing him on this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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