Saxony or Sachen the Different Ones

The Newcomers to Saxon genealogy need to identify whether they want the Kingdom of Saxony or the Province of Saxony
 Lower Saxony, Niedersachen or Saxony-Anhalt .

The history of what became the Kingdom of Saxony [Königreich Sachsen] in the German Empire of 1871 is complex. Over centuries, large areas broke into smaller states, boundaries changed position, and regions changed names. Each of the identifiable areas will be dealt with separately. This complex history has led to three states in today's Germany that include Saxony [Sachsen] in their name: Lower Saxony [Niedersachsen], Saxony-Anhalt [Sachsen­Anhalt], and Saxony [Sachsen], similar in area and location to the Kingdom of Saxony.
Refer to The Germanic Genealogy Journal Spring 2002 for a excellent "how to do Research in Saxony".
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WHAT ARE THE SAXONS?

The Saxons are they people that populated the different areas of Saxony. This is a small insight to them. Saxons  were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-day descendants in German states are considered ethnic Germans (the state of Sachsen is not inhabited by ethnic Saxons; the state of Sachsen-Anhalt is though, in its northern and western parts); those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch.

Saxons participated in the Germanic settlement of Britain during and after the 5th century. Since the 18th century, many continental Saxons have settled other parts of the world, especially in North America, Australia, South Africa, South of Brazil and in areas of the former Soviet Union, where some communities still maintain parts of their cultural and linguistic heritage, often under the umbrella categories "German", and "Dutch".

The pre-Christian settlement of the Saxon people originally covered an area a little more to the northwest, with parts of the southern Jutland Peninsula, Old Saxony and small sections of the eastern Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands). During the 5th century AD, the Saxons were part of the people invading the Romano-British province of Britannia. One of the other tribes was the Germanic Angles, whose name, taken together with that of the Saxons led to the formation of the modern term, Anglo-Saxon

KINGDON OF SAXONY [Königreich Sachsen]

History
The Newcomers to Saxon genealogy need to identify whether they want the Kingdom of Saxony or the Province of Saxony to the north. The Kingdom of Saxony includes the cities of Dresden, Meissen, Chemnitz and Leipzig.
The Kingdom of Saxony (German: Königreich Sachsen), lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War I and the abdication of King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. Its capital was the city of Dresden, and its modern successor state is the Free State of Saxony.

The  Napoleonic Era and the German Confederation
In 1806, French Emperor Napolean abolished the Holy Roman Empire and decreed the Electorate of Saxony a kingdom in itself. Elector Frederick Augustus III became King Frederick Augustus I. Frederick Augustus remained loyal to Napoleon during the wars that swept Europe in the following years; he was taken prisoner and his territories declared forfeit by the allies in 1813, who intended the annexation of Saxony by Prussia.
Following the defeat of Saxony's ally Prussia at the Battle of Jena in 1806, Saxony joined the Confederation of the Rhine, and remained within the Confederation until its dissolution in 1813. Following the battle, in which Saxony - virtually alone of the German states - had fought alongside the French, King Frederick Augustus I was deserted by his troops, taken prisoner by the Prussians and considered to have forfeited his throne by the allies, who put Saxony under Russian occupation and administration. This was probably more due to the Prussian desire to annex Saxony than to any crime on Frederick Augustus's part, and the fate of Saxony would prove to be one of the main issues at the Congress of Vienna.
Ultimately, the opposition of Austria, France, and the United Kingdom to this plan resulted in the restoration of Frederick Augustus to his throne at the Congress of Vienna. At this time in 1815, Saxony was forced to cede the northern part of the kingdom to Prussia.
The Austro-Prussian War and the German Empire
The Kingdom of Saxony in 1895 - During the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, Saxony sided with Austria, and the Saxon army was generally seen as the only ally to bring substantial aid to the Austrian cause, having abandoned the defense of Saxony itself to join up with the Austrian army in Bohemia. This effectiveness probably allowed Saxony to escape the fate of other north German states which allied with Austria (notably the Kingdom of Hanover), which were annexed by Prussia after the war. The Austrians insisted  that Saxony must be spared, and the Prussians acquiesed. Saxony nevertheless joined the Prussian-led North German Confederation the next year. Prussia's victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, let the members of the Confederation were organized by Otto von Bismarck into the German Empire, with Wilhelm I as its Emperor.
The end of the Kingdom of Saxnoy
Wilhelm I's grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918 as a result of Germany's defeat in the First World War  King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony followed him into abdication and the Kingdom of Saxony became the free State of Saxony within the newly-formed Weimar Republic.
For More insist to the history and genealogy of the Kingdom of Saxony refer to Germanic Genealogy 3rd Edition p.408

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxony 
http://www.saxgen.net/
http://www.die-sachsen-kommen.de/en/indexen.htm
http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/saxony/links.htm
http://www.slcl.org/sc/pdfs/rg_german_regional_guide.pdf

Frauenkirche in Dresden has only recently been rebuilt after being destroyed in  WWII.  Postcard by H. Schauer of Dresden

E-Mail Lists
http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/SAXONY.html

MAPS
www.cyndislist.com/maps.htm
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Germany


ARCHIVES and RECORDS
http://www.ekd.de/archive/deutsch/regionen.htm
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp
http://www.familienarchiv-papsdorf.de

SAXONY RESEARCH GROUPS
http://www.genealogienetz.de/vereine/ag-dresden/
http://www.gv-chemnitz.de/index.html#oben
http://www.lgg-leipzig.de/
http://genforum.genealogy.com/germany/saxony/


BOOKS
Map Guide to German Parish Registers Kingdom of Saxony I Vol 25
Map Guide to German Parish Registers Kingdom of Saxony II Vol 26
Kingdom of Saxony (with Anhalt) Place Name Indexes: Indentifying Place Names Using Alphabetical and Reverse Alphabetical Indexes (R914.318 M662k 2003)
Atlantic bridge to Germany: Saxony (Kingdom, Thuringia, 9 Duchies) v 9 (R929.30943 H14a v.9)



FLAGS
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wappen_Deutsches_Reich_-_K%C3%B6nigreich_Sachsen_%28Grosses%29.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_arms_of_Wettin_House_Albert_Line.png
http://www.meiszen.net/family/tree/manly/reunion_2002/stories/ancestors.htm
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:State_flag_of_Saxony_before_1815.svg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Banner_of_Saxony_%281%5E1%29.svg

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 LOWER SAXONY [Neidersachsen]

 
                                                                               

 Lower Saxony (German Niedersachsen) lies in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the country's sixteen Bundesländer (federal states).  In rural areas Low Saxon is still spoken, but declining.
Lower Saxony borders on (from north and clockwise) the North Sea, the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, and the kingdom of the Netherlands. The state of Bremen forms two enclaves within Lower Saxony. The state's principal cities include Hanover, Braunschweig , Osnabrück, Oldenburg, Meppen and Göttingen.
The area is named for the Saxons, who moved there from what is today the neighboring state of Schleswig-Holstein towards the middle of the 1st millennium AD. Originally the region was simply called Saxony, but as the center of gravity of the Duchy of Saxony gradually moved up the Elbe, towards the present day states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony, the region was given the name Lower Saxony, which it bore as an Imperial Kreise Estate from the late 15th Century

The northwestern portion of Lower Saxony is a part of Frisia; it is called Ostfriesland (Eastern Frisia) and lies on the coast of the North Sea. It includes seven islands, known as the East Frisian Islands. In the southwest of Lower Saxony is the Emsland, a sparsely populated area, once a inaccessible swamp. The northern half of Lower Saxony is absolutely flat, but there are two mountain chains in the south: the Weserbergland ("Weser Hilly Region") and the Harz. The middle of the state houses the largest cities and the economic centres: Hanover, Hildesheim, Wolfsburg, Salzgitter and Braunschweig (Brunswick). The region in the northeast is called Lüneburger Heide. To the north the Elbe river separates Lower Saxony from Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg. The lands on the southern banks are called Altes Land (literally "Old Land"), and they are characterised by thousands of fruit-trees.
Lower Saxony is divided into 38 districts or Kreise

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