A surprising observation

We will return to the 1811 contract between Waclav Borejko and twenty-one Mennonite families in more detail later on (we especially want to read the terms of the contract to see what they tell us about our family’s life in Zofyovka), but for now let’s play a quick game of “one of these things is not like the others.”

Listed below are the names of all the Mennonite signatories to the contract. Which of the names is not like the others?

Andreas Pankrac, his son Andreas Pancras, Thobias Nachtigall, Heinrich Boller, Helene Derkien, Jakob Cilke, Jakob Richard, David Joot, Heinricht Dirks, Gotthilf Beese, Johann Nikel and his son Erdmann Nikel, Peter Unruh, Heinrich Joot, David Boller, Lorenz Sperling, Jakob Joot, Martin Beier, Thobias Sperling, Peter Sperling, Heinrich Sperling

Horyn River. © Oleksandr Yakovets.

Spot the one? Surprisingly, mixed among the twenty male heads of households is a female: Helene Derkien. What are we to make of this?

Presumably Helene served as the head of her own household, probably due to the death of a husband. She was probably known as Witwe (widow) Derkien. It was fairly common for people of that era to have multiple spouses, given the higher mortality rate even among adults compared to modern times. So, one might imagine (and this is no more than that) that Helene’s husband had died but that she had not yet remarried.

It is striking that, in a male-oriented, even male-centric, society such as that, a woman could serve as head of her own household and become a coequal partner in legally binding agreements such as the contract with Waclay Borejko. It was a small accommodation to treating all households equally, to be sure, but it is interesting to note that gender roles were not completely rigid even in a male-dominated society such as nineteenth-century Volhynia.