Mennonite Life and old Buller

Those who want to read more extensively about matters Mennonite should bookmark the home page of the journal Mennonite Life (see here). Launched in 1946 “in the interest of the best in the religious, social, and economic phases of Mennonite culture,” Mennonite Life publishes informative articles on Mennonites around the world both from the past and the present day.

Most of the issues are available online at no charge, so be sure to click on the Past Issues button for recent issues and the Partly-Digitized Issues for older ones. All sorts of treasures are waiting to be discovered in both places, including an April 1955 article of particular interest to Bullers (see here and scroll down to page 76).

The article “Przechowka and Alexanderwohl—Beginnings of Alexanderwohl, Tabor, Hoffnungsau, and Other Churches” concerns two churches that we have encountered before: the Przechovka (or Przechowka) church in West Prussia, and the Alexanderwohl church in Molotschna, the churches with which, we believe, our direct and indirect Buller ancestors were associated before they came to the U.S. (see here and here).

Przechovka church book title page

Author J. A. Duerksen offers a fascinating introduction to the times, the village, the church, and even the church register. I encourage you to read the entire article for yourself. Still, one section is of particular interest: Duerksen’s listing of the church’s earliest families and what is said about each one of them in the church register.

So, for example, the entry about the Becker family records that they (along with other families) left the Lutheran church for the Przechovka Mennonite congregation. At least three families (Schellenberger, Schmidt, and Thomas) came to Przechovka from Moravia when persecution broke out there.

The Buller section does not offer a great deal of information, but at least now (thanks to Duerksen) we know more of what it says and, as a result, can pick out a few words in the hard-to-read text of the extract below.

According to Duerken, “All that is known about the first Buller is that his second wife was Dina Thomsen, a granddaughter of the Thomas family which fled from Moravia to the Przechkowka area. Buller lived to a very old age” (Duerken, 1955, 80). He bases those conclusions on the information provided by the section pictured below.

Thus we can see (apparently) “alte Buller” (old Buller) in the second line; the number 930 in the third line from the bottom (that number begins the Thoms/Thomas family entries in the register); the name “Thomsen” at the beginning of the second line up from the bottom; and the first name “Dina” as the last readable word in that same line.

No significant or surprising discoveries here, merely a note that our ancestor was married at least twice and that his second wife (our ancestor?) was originally from Moravia. Maybe at some point we will be able to fill in additional details, such as his first name, the name of his first wife, or where he lived before he settled in Przechovka. For now, all we can do is take note and remember.

Source

Duerksen, J. A. 1955. Przechowka and Alexanderwohl—Beginnings of Alexanderwohl, Tabor, Hoffnungsau, and Other Churches. Mennonite Life 10:76–82.