New territory

Exploring our family history requires us to enter a variety of new territories. The history of the times is unfamiliar to many of us, and the script and even the language of key documents is often difficult to comprehend. The geographical setting of our family history is frequently as unfamiliar as all the rest. So, before we proceed further in our trek into the Prussian/Polish period of the Buller family history, we should take a moment to orient ourselves.

If you recall, before Bullers lived in the U.S. we lived in the Molotschna Mennonite colony in New Russia (present-day Ukraine). Before that we lived in the lowlands of the Vistula (Wisła) River in a part of the Prussian Empire, West Prussia, to be exact, modern Poland. The map below offers a wide view of the area of our interest.

The city Gdańsk, Poland, on the shore of the Baltic Sea was known as Danzig during the period in question. Approximately 75 miles south of Danzig lies the area where Bullers lived several centuries ago. The red rectangle shows the rough location of our forebears’ home, which is shown in greater detail below.

The area in the detail map is roughly 20 miles by 14 miles, so essentially the same size as the south half of York County, Nebraska. The most noteworthy feature on this map is, of course, the Vistula River, which cuts across the lower right.

We will zoom in further on portions of this detail map in future posts; for now it is enough to note a number of specific locales.

• The red letter A in the upper left marks the village of Jeziorken (Jeziorka), where the George listed in the 1776 census of Mennonits (see here) is located. 


• The two Peters listed in that census are associated with Deutsch Konopat (B: Greater Deutsch Konopat; C: Lesser Deutsch Konopat).


• The Heinrich in the 1776 census is said to have lived at Schwetzerkamp (E). Heinrich is also linked to Ehrenthal (F) in another source.


• D marks the village of Przechovka, which housed the church where many of the Bullers in the area were members. (See earlier posts on the Przechovka church book here.)

Except for the Jeziorka Bullers, the rest lived and worshiped within a 5 mile radius that extended from Deutsch Konopat on the west to Ehrenthal on the east. We will do well to learn more about all these villages and areas, beginning with Heinrich Buller’s Schwetzerkamp.