Hackney Family Tree

The spelling of the surname can vary as well, from REISS to REIS

It appears, that the name on the list = Reiß,
this last letter ß, that looks somewhat like a B, is actually a double s = ss.
According to spelling rules, it could not be used alternately, it was either ß, or it was ss.
But today, with the use of computers, the ß is being replaced more and more by the double ss, even though it is not considered to be correct.

1880 census:
Father and mother born in Prussia

Name: Bernhard Reiss
Arrival Date: 3 Jul 1869
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Port of Departure: Bremen
Ship: Erna
Ship Type: Bark
Port of Arrival: Baltimore
National Archives' Series Number: M255
Microfilm Roll Number: 17
List Number: 53
Destination: Milwaukee

source: Baltimore, Passenger and Immigration Lists, 1820-1872

The State of Hessen was a part of Prussia (PREUSSEN ), and when we visited our relatives in Bamberg ( Franconia is Upper- Bavaria), our relatives used to say: "The Prussians are coming".
This is a map of Prussia from 1815 to 1866, but that was not the end of Prussia yet.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Deutscher_Bund.png
Vacation in Bavaria
Even though, we have not been a Prussian State for a long time, the Bavarians like to refer to Germans, who are not from Bavaria, as Prussians. Bavaria was, and still is a free state. These statements are still being used today, and they make my laugh, and that is easy for me, as I am half Prussian and half Bavarian.
Prussia
For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history of Germany http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Germany, with its capital in Berlin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Berlin after 1451. In 1871, German states united in creating the German Empire under Prussian leadership. In November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power. Prussia was effectively abolished in 1932, and officially abolished in 1947.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia
As for the title Kaiser, a large part of the population in Germany had become Lutheran, and that created a change. The German Kaisers called themselves Kings of Prussia, and German Kaiser. They could not longer call themselves KAISER OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, because in previous times, all the German Kaisers were Catholics, and they were anointed and crowned by the Pope, or at least anointed and crowned with his approval. For this reason, Kaiser Wilhelm I accepted the title Kaiser with great reluctance.

KRONBERG and the Kaiser
The last German Kaiserin (Empress, the wife of the Kaiser) was Victoria, oldest daughter of Queen Victoria of England, her husband Kaiser Friedrich was in office for only 99 days when he passed on. Their marriage was arranged, but they were most fortunate, in that they were actually very much in love. After Kaiser Friedrich had passed away, the Kaiserin Victoria called herself Kaiserin Friedrich, in honor of her late husband. She resided then in the Palace which we know today as the SCHLOSS HOTEL.
To this day, most of the rooms on the upper floor are still reserved for the family, and it is a large family as you can see here.

MEMBERS OF THE HAUS HOHENZOLLERN (the adults only)
http://www.preussen.de/de/familie/familie_heute.html

A Prinz of Hohenzollern, the last HEAD OF THE HAUS HOHENZOLLERN passed away recently, there was a large service her in Kronberg, relatives from all over Germany and many other parts of the world had came to pay their respect. The new HEAD OF THE HAUS HOHENZOLLERN is the young man in the photo, in the back row, in the middle, next to the head with gray hair. He is Prinz Georg Friedrich von Preussen, he is the great great great ? grandson of Kaiser Friedrich dem Grossen (Friedrich the Great) Alter Fritz ( the old Fritz) .
Kaiser Friedrich der Grosse (1712 - 1786) had formed an agreement with the USA, Prussia officially recognized the 13 new States in the US. An agreement was made between the 2 countries, to treat all prisoners of war in a humane manner. He established many schools for the children, he did away with torture, as he felt that any answer given under torture, could not be viewed as the truth. He initiated the start of the abolishment of the feudal system. The landowners did not only own the land, but they often owned the farmers who worked the land for them. He wanted to put an end to this type of slavery.
1871 - 1887, after France was defeated in the war of 1870/71, a new formation of the German states was needed. The last 3 Kaisers, Wilhlem I, Friedrich III, and Wilhelm II were actually no longer Kaisers, perhaps they should actually have been called Könige (kings), but they kept the title Kaiser. because Prussia had more of a " Constitutional Monarchy", after 1887, not at all the "Kaiserreich" that it once was during the reign of the previous Kaisers. Prussia's first Reichskanzler (a chancellor) was Otto von Bismarck, he lived from (1815-1898) and was the chancellor from 1867 - 1890.
Even till today, the head of the country is Kanzler (chancellor), today it is the Bundeskanzlerin Merkel
Bismarck who had to overcome the obstacle, that Germany was comprised 39 sovereign states grouped in the so-called German Confederation.
This is a map of the area from 1815 to 1866 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Deutscher_Bund.png
Within nine years, Bismarck untied this knot in what Jonathan Steinberg, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, describes as “the greatest diplomatic and political achievement by any leader in the last two centuries.” He overcame the princes of the German states in two wars and rallied them in a third; won over public opinion by granting universal manhood suffrage - making Prussia one of the first states in Europe to do so; paralyzed France by holding out the prospect of agreeing to the French acquisition of Luxembourg, and Russia by a benevolent attitude during the Polish revolution of 1863. Bismarck accomplished all this “without commanding a single soldier, without dominating a vast parliamentary majority, without the support of a mass movement, without any previous experience in government and in the face of national revulsion at his name and his reputation. Prussia was among the first on the continent not only to introduce universal suffrage but also, later on, to enact sweeping social legislation. He prevailed not so much because he was stronger as because his adversaries proved less nimble.
Until Bismarck appeared on the scene, it had generally been assumed that nationalism and conservatism represented opposite poles; he rejected that proposition. Prussia's cohesion was sufficiently strong, he argued, that it could challenge the authority of monarchs abroad even while conducting a monarchist policy at home. Like Disraeli, he believed that a broadly based suffrage would be nationalistic and could be mobilized for conservative causes.
Still, for the 28 years that he served as chancellor of Germany, Bismarck preserved what he had built by a restrained and wise diplomacy, which was the single most important element in maintaining the peace of Europe. “My map of Africa lies in Europe,” he said in resisting pressures to acquire colonies. And he responded to the suggestion of a pre-emptive war against Russia with: “Woe to the statesman whose arguments for entering a war are not as convincing at its end as they were at the beginning.”

Bismarck was dismissed by a new emperor in 1890. It was the ultimate paradox that the man who had dominated Europe by exalting stability should conclude his career at the whim of a young, somewhat unstable, sovereign.
The idea of conquering Europe would never have come to Bismarck; it was always part of Hitler's vision. Hitler could never have pronounced Bismarck's famous dictum that statesmanship consisted of listening carefully to the footsteps of God through history and walking with him a few steps of the way. Hitler left a vacuum. Bismarck left a state strong enough to overcome two catastrophic defeats as well as a legacy of unassimilable greatness. Nevertheless, “Bismarck: A Life” is the best study of its subject in the English language.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/books/review/book-review-bismarck-by-jonathan-steinberg.html