I would like to do some genealogical research on my family name of Mecklenburg in Germany. I was told that it was originally von Mecklenburg, meaning "house of" . From what I can determine, the name Mecklenburg was not originally a surname as we know it today but a name that was taken as a surname for immigration/emmigration purposes from the region. Hence, Mecklenburg County in NC, etc.
The story in my family was that we were descended from a "duke" of Mecklenburg who married a commoner but died accidentally leaving a widow and two sons who immigrated to America. How does one trace these kinds of stories? Is it difficult to research these things in Germany due to wartime destruction of records, etc.