GRANDMA knows

My brother Dan told me about the GRANDMA (Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry) database a little while back, and recently I finally found time to start exploring its riches. What I discovered was … well, enlightening.

The entry for a certain Peter Buller (number 67824 in the database), who was born 11 January 1845 and married to Sarah Siebert—in other words, the ancestor we know as Peter D—records that he immigrated to the United States aboard the SS Switzerland, arriving in Philadelphia on 24 June 1879. Notice any problem with that? If not, see here.

Further on the entry cites the source of this information: a book titled Brothers in Deed to Brothers in Need (Hiebert 1974, 361). Hard to believe, but I bought a used copy of that book a month ago, so I opened it in hopes of determining how GRANDMA had gotten this vital information wrong. I first confirmed that pages 360–61 do reproduce the ship’s manifest for the SS Switzerland on its voyage from Antwerp, Belgium, to Philadelphia, arriving on 24 June 1879 (see below).

Looking more closely at page 361 (below), I spotted toward the bottom of the second column a man named Peter Buller, but his wife was unnamed—certainly no help in knowing if this was our Peter D. Add in the fact that Peter D was thirty-four when he came to the U.S., not thirty-three, and Sarah was thirty-one, not thirty, and I began to doubt that this is who GRANDMA thinks it is.

Reading on, I noticed “Johann (11)” at the bottom of the second column, then “Peter (10)” at the top of the third. Wait … Peter P was ten years old when the family came to the U.S. Looking back at the Peter D page of the Buller Family Record, I discovered that Peter P’s older (by a year!) brother was named Johann, and his younger brothers were David and Cornelius and his younger sisters Katharina and Sarah.

In other words, apart from Peter D’s and Sarah’s ages each being off by a year, the SS Switzerland passenger list appears to correspond exactly to the family of Peter D. The manifest even lacks the next child in line, Jacob P, who was not born until 2 August later that same year.

The only remaining mystery was the identity of the twenty-four-year-old David tacked on at the end of the list. According to the Buller Family Record, Peter D had a younger brother named David who was born 14 February 1855—which would have made him twenty-four in 1879. In other words, Peter D and family did not come to the U.S. all by themselves—they were accompanied by at least one close family member. More remarkably, they did not travel on the SS Vaderland but on another ship of the Red Star Line, the SS Switzerland!

But that is only a part of the story. If you recall, an earlier discussion of Sarah Siebert (here) noted that her father Johann was owner of a full land allotment in Kleefeld. Now let your eyes wander a bit up from Peter D’s listing on page 361 above. Notice any familiar names?

The family headed by Johann Siebert is apparently Sarah Siebert Buller’s birth family. According to the GRANDMA database, Johann Siebert was born on 13 June 1822, so he would have been fifty-six (not fifty-five) when the Switzerland set out from Antwerp (which is when the manifest was written). His wife Katharina was two years younger than he, so again we have a case of both parents’ ages being off by a year on the manifest.

Most important, Johann and Katharina had children named Johann, Peter, Kornelius, Margaretha, Anna, and Diedrich. Based on this close correspondence, it seems safe to conclude that Peter D, Sarah, and family were accompanied on their journey to North America not only by Peter’s brother David but also by Sarah’s parents and siblings who were still at home.

But the story doesn’t end even there. GRANDMA also tells us that Sarah, who was the oldest child in her family, had a younger sister named Katharina (born 3 April 1851, so twenty-eight in June 1879) who married one Jacob Friesen (born 23 December 1845) and had three daughters with him before June 1879: Elisabeth, Katharina, and Anna. Keep those names in mind as you let your eyes wander a bit to the left of the Peter D entry. The correspondences leave little doubt but that this Jacob Friesen was another son-in-law of Johann and Katharina Siebert.

Still more… Johann and Katharina Siebert had two other children: a son Cornelius died at the age of eleven in 1860, but a daughter Maria married Abraham A Thieszen and had several children with him: Katharina, Johann, and Maria. According to the GRANDMA database, the two older children also came over on the SS Switzerland, which gives us a partial correspondence with the Abraham Tiessen listed toward the top of column 4 on page 361 above. Specifically, Johann is missing, and Maria is listed. Either this is a different family or some of the genealogical information is confused (e.g., did someone switch the years of birth for Johann and Maria?). If this is, in fact, Maria Siebert Thieszen, then all of Johann and Katharina Siebert’s living children emigrated to the U.S. at the same time. This sheds an entirely new light on the circumstances surrounding Peter D and Sarah’s move to the U.S.

But there is still more. About a third of the way down on column 2 is another Buller, Benjamin, with an unnamed wife eight years younger than he and a son named Johann not yet a year old. According to the Buller Family Record, Peter D’s younger brother Benjamin was born 1 June 1851 (so he was just twenty-eight when the Switzerland sailed), and he married Anna Reimer, who was eight years his junior. Their first son, John (≈ Johann), was born on 10 December 1878. Unless this is the oddest coincidence, it would seem than another of Peter D’s brothers came to America not only at the same time but on the same ship.

One more? Peter D’s younger sister Elisabeth married Abraham Braun (handwritten correction in the Buller Family Record). Two years his senior, she would have been thirty-two in June 1879, and he would have been thirty. Their first four children (all born before 1879) were Elisabeth, Abraham, Isaak, and Maria—according to the Buller Family Record. The second entry of the entire passenger list (p. 360) records an Abraham Brauer with a question mark indicating an uncertain reading, followed by his wife Elisabeth, two years his senior, and five (!) children: Elisabeth, Abraham, Isaac, Maria, and Helena. Could this be the same family? The Buller Family Record has only four children before 1879, with Lena being born in the U.S. in 1883. GRANDMA explains it all. The Buller Family Record has missed one daughter named Helena, who was born 23 September 1878 and died sometime in September 1879, after the family moved to the U.S.

To recap, the family memory inscribed in the Buller Family Record of Peter D, Sarah, and their six kids coming to America on the SS Vaderland is apparently wrong. They came on a different ship of the Red Star Line: the SS Switzerland.

Perhaps more important, the Buller Family Record gives only part of the story of the family’s move to the U.S. In fact, Peter D and family were part of a large family group who journeyed at the same time and on the same ship, including Sarah’s parents and unmarried siblings, two of her married sisters and their families, Peter D’s unmarried (apparently widowed) brother David, his brother Benjamin and his family, and his sister Elisabeth and her family. Stated differently, all of Sarah’s living brothers and sisters, and three of Peter D’s five brothers and sisters all traveled together to Philadelphia.

What might this suggest about the circumstances surrounding the move? An interesting question, but it will have to wait until another time.

Source

Hiebert, Clarence. 1974. Brothers in Deed to Brothers in Need: A Scrapbook about Mennonite Immigrants from Russia, 1870–1885. Newton, KS: Faith and Life Press.