Taking another step back before David, we encounter several Bullers (actually, Buhlers and Büllers) in the 1776 Prussian census. In terms of historical context, after a period of war in which the Poles proved unable to defend their territory, a significant portion of the Kingdom of Poland was divided between the three powers Austria, Prussia, and Russia in 1772. So it was that the area in which our ancestors lived came under the control of the Prussian king Frederick II.
As one way of taking inventory, as it were, of his newly gained territory, Frederick conducted a census of Mennonites living in most parts of the province of West Prussia (Danzig and the Thorn territory were excluded). According to Glenn H. Penner, this census “contains information on 2,638 families and accounts for 12,186 people.”
Listed among the 2,638 heads of households are two Buhlers, three Büllers, and one Butler whose name was actually Buller, according to a later marginal note. Although the actual census documents are not available for viewing online, as far as I know, Horst Penner and others have transcribed the recorded data so that we can learn something of the individuals included. The figure below shows a portion of page 421 in Horst 1978.
The third name listed is Abra. (Abraham) Buhler, followed by Abrah. (Abraham) Buller. Immediately below are Heinrich Büller and two Peter Büllers. Five names below one spies George Butler, but the note in the right margin indicates that Butler is actually a Buller. So much for the names. What else can we learn about these 1776 Prussian Bullers?
The column after the names lists the village of residence, followed by the occupation of the person listed. The six “number” columns that follow list, in order: husband, wife, number of sons, number of daughters, number of male servants, and number of female servants. The last two columns identify the household head’s status as owner or renter and the family’s relative financial condition.
The first Abraham Buhler lived in Alt Schottland, an area just outside of Danzig and thus not in the area of our Bullers, who lived farther south in the Vistula River delta. He was, if you can make out the Fraktur script, a Häker, which Glenn Penner indicates was a proprietor of a general store. His household contained only Abraham and his wife plus a female servant. The E. in the next-to-last column indicates that he was an Eigentümer, that is, an owner (presumably of his house and shop). His financial condition is listed as mm., meaning mittelmässig, “average,” what we might call today middle class.
The second Abraham Buhler lived in Tiegenhof (a village east of Danzig, so likewise some distance from our Bullers). He was a Schuster (cobbler) whose household contained him, his wife, three sons, and one daughter. He was a Mietsmann (renter) rather than an Eigentümer, and his financial status was characterized as s. (= schlecht), that is, low (but not the lowest).
All the Büllers (including George Butler = Buller) lived in the same general area of the Vistula River delta: Heinrich in Schwetzerkampen (or Schwetzer Kampe), George in Jeziorken (aka Jeziorka), and the two Peters in Deutsch-Konopat. The occupation for all four is given as Lw., an abbreviation for Landwirt, or “farmer.” All four are said to have owned their farmland, and all four are characterized as schlecht (low). The four families include husband and wife (no widows or widowers) and between one and seven children. Only the second Peter lists a servant, in this case a female.
We end with a few passing observations and questions.
1. It is interesting that the two Buhlers lived in the Danzig region to the north and the four Büllers were farmers in the area farther south. Is there any connection between these two family-groups, or is it a coincidence that their names appear to stem from the same original name?
2. If these family-groups are related, does the distinction between Buhlers in the north and Büllers in the south shed light on the statement in the Przechovka church register about the first Buller listed, that this was “the first time that this family name appears” (see here)?
3. Does the listing of four Büller families around the Vistula comport with the number of Bullers included in the Przechovka church register (see here)? I think that is worth exploring further.
More questions than answers, as usual, but at least we have added a bit more detail to the portrait of our family’s life in Prussia. As of 1776, there were twenty-one Büllers living in the Vistula River area (eight adults and thirteen children), all of them land-owning farm familes who were not quite middle-class.
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For additional online resources, see Glenn H. Penner’s introduction to the census list here. He also provides a complete census with additional notes here.
Source
Penner, Horst. 1978. Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten in ihrem religiösen und sozialen Leben, in ihren kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Leistungen. Teil 1: 1526 bis 1772. Weierhof: Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein.
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