More about Wysock

We continue to stumble toward the truth, which occasionally means taking a step back and correcting a misstep. The previous post compared the information in Martin Schrag’s 1959 article on Volhynia with the lists of names given in two registers of emigrants to the Rovno region of Volhynia (which we dubbed Rovno 1 and Rovno 2). Based on a high degree of correspondence between the two sets of names, it was suggested that the W- town mentioned in the Rovno registers was, in fact, Wyscock and that the location in which our ancestors Benjanim, Helena, and David Buller first settled in Russia was the village Zofyovka.

Although the conclusion offered at the end of the post remains valid, the relationship between the twenty-one families mentioned by Schrag and the Rovno registers is a little more complicated than originally thought. Here we go …

Photograph taken north of Wysock (Vysots’k) in the direction of
where the village Zofyovka was located.

Although Schrag does not identify his source for stating that twenty-one families with eleven surnames founded the village of Zofyovka, he does list a number of secondary sources at the end of his article. One of these is Alfred Karasek and Kurt Lück’s Die Deutschen Siedlungen in Wolhynien (1931). A search for that book did not turn up any online copies, but it did uncover an excerpt from another book by Lück, Deutsche Aufbaukräfte in der Entwicklung Polens (1934).

Why does that matter to us? Because Lück has included the German version of a contract between a noble named Waclav Borejko and a group of Mennonite families (for the excerpt, see here). Lück explains that the contract was drawn up in Polish (for Borejko) and German (for the Mennonites) on 19 April 1811. Fortunately, Lück does more than describe the contract; he actually gives the text of the German version, so we can examine it for ourselves. The first, and most important, paragraph reads:

Zwischen S. Excellenz dem Hohen und Wohlgeborenen Herrn Waclaw von Boreiko ehemaligem Marschall des Rownoer Bezirks, Mitglied der Erziehungskommission, St. Anna Ordens Ritter, von einer, und den redlichen Kollonisten Menonisten genannt als Andreas Pankrac, dessen Sohn Andreas Pancras, Thobias Nachtigall, Heinrich Boller, Helene Derkien, Jakob Cilke, Jakob Richard, David Joot, Heinricht Dirks, Gotthilf Beese, Johann Nikel und sein Sohn Erdmann Nikel, Peter Unruh, Heinrich Joot, David Boller, Lorenz Sperling, Jakob Joot, Martin Beier, Thobias Sperling, Peter Sperling, Heinrich Sperling, welche für sich und auch für die Abwesenden gut stehen von anderer Seite ist nachfolgender Vertrag für ewigen Zeiten frei geschlossen worden und zwar—

The contract goes on to list and detail the specific terms of the contract, but that is not the part that interests us. What we really want to see is names of the Mennonites who made this contract with Waclav Borejko. The following translation should make that task easier.

Between His Excellency the High and Well-Born Lord Waclav of Borejko, former Marshal of the Rovno district, member of the Education Commission, St. Anna Order of Knights, on the one hand, and the honest [or genuine?] Mennonite colonists named 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, who for themselves and also for those who are absent in good standing, on the other hand, is the following contract concluded freely for ages, namely. …

Let us begin with the obvious: counting Mennonite names. Not surprisingly, there are twenty-one, just as Schrag said in his article. As before, a table will help us to compare the names listed.

Contract	Schrag
Andreas Pankrac	Pankratz
Andreas Pankrac	Pankratz
Thobias Nachtigall	Nachtigall
Heinrich Boller
Helene Derkien	Dirks?
Jakob Cilke	Ziekle
Jakob Richard	Richard
David Joot	Voth
Heinricht Dirks	Dirks
Gotthilf Beese	Bose
Johann Nikel	Nickel
Erdmann Nikel	Nickel
Peter Unruh	Unruh
Heinrich Joot	Voth
David Boller
Lorenz Sperling	Sperling
Jakob Joot	Voth
Martin Beier	Beyer
Thobias Sperling	Sperling
Peter Sperling	Sperling
Heinrich Sperling	Sperling

All eleven of the names that Schrag lists in his article—Beyer, Bose, Dirks, Voth, Nachtigall, Nickel, Pankratz, Richard, Sperling, Unruh, and Ziekle—appear in the contract between Waclav Borejko and the twenty-one Mennonite families. Without any doubt, this contract is the primary source on which Schrag based his paragraph about the families near Wysock.

What I find curious is that Schrag did not list all the families who were parties to the 1811 contract, that he omitted at least one surname representing two families: Heinrich Boller and David Boller! Why our name was overlooked I cannot say, but this reminds us how important it is not to take the word of secondary sources and always to check facts in primary sources, that is, the actual documents on which historical narrative is based (i.e., the 1811 contract).

Let’s take a moment to recap before we end by tying up a loose end.

1. The Rovno 1 register lists Benjamin, Helena, and David Buller as moving to land owned by Waclav Borejko outside of a town whose name begins with W but is otherwise unreadable.


2. Martin Schrag discusses a group of twenty-one Mennonite families who signed a contract with Waclav Borejko to settle on his estate, where they founded the village Zofyovka a little to the north of Wysock.


3. The 1811 contract matches Schrag’s details exactly (and also reveals a few details that he left out—including our surname) and is thus seen to be the source for Schrag’s information.


4. Putting these three known facts together, we can safely conclude that the W- town in Rovno 1 is Wysock and that Benjamin, Helena, and David Buller moved to the Mennonite village north of Wysock, namely, Zofyovka.

In light of this, we need to correct a suggestion in the previous post, where we noted a high degree of correspondence between the names Schrag listed and those in Rovno 1 and 2. In fact, this high degree of correspondence does not indicate a direct relation between what Schrag wrote and the registers. However, they do reveal an indirect relation between the families who first settled in Zofyovka and those who were said to be living there in 1819–1820. The precise details of that indirect relation must wait for another post, but in the meantime one might ask why Benjamin Buller decided to settle in Zofyovka in the first place.

Note

To make it more readily accessible, the portion of the contract included in Lück 1934 is provided below.

Zwischen S. Excellenz dem Hohen und Wohlgeborenen Herrn Waclaw von Boreiko ehemaligem Marschall des Rownoer Bezirks, Mitglied der Erziehungskommission, St. Anna Ordens Ritter, von einer, und den redlichen Kollonisten Menonisten genannt als Andreas Pankrac, dessen Sohn Andreas Pancras, Thobias Nachtigall, Heinrich Boller, Helene Derkien, Jakob Cilke, Jakob Richard, David Joot, Heinricht Dirks, Gotthilf Beese, Johann Nikel und sein Sohn Erdmann Nikel, Peter Unruh, Heinrich Joot, David Boller, Lorenz Sperling, Jakob Joot, Martin Beier, Thobias Sperling, Peter Sperling, Heinrich Sperling, welche für sich und auch für die Abwesenden gut stehen von anderer Seite ist nachfolgender Vertrag für ewigen Zeiten frei geschlossen worden und zwar –

1. Die oberwehnten Menonisten sowohl wie auch ihre Nachkömmlinge werden auf ewige Zeiten frei sein von allen Steuern und herrschaftlichen Arbeiten was immer für Nahmens und Bezahlung für dieselben, den vermittelst dieses Kontraktes stipulierten Grundzins ausgenommen. Von allen Bussleistungen, von Einquartierung der Soldaten oder Bezahlung für sie, aus herrschaftlicher Veranlassung, von Rekrutenstellung oder Rekrutengeldern statt der Herrschaftlichen Unterthanen und überhaupt besagte Menonisten werden in den landesfürstlichen Schuldigkeiten so viel Freiheit geniessen, als ohne das, für die Menonisten erlassene Kaiserliche Privilegium einräumt.


2. Es wird besagten Menonisten die Freiheit gelassen, mit ihren Landesprodukten frei zu handeln, und sie überall fortzuführen, ohne aller an den Grundherrn oder jemanden auf dem herrschaftlichen Grunde zu leistende Bezahlung.


3. Sie sind frei ihr Handwerk oder Kunst zu betreiben, ohne aller Bezahlung an die Zünfte oder sonst jemand anderem.


4. Frei sind sie und werden von Niemand in ihrem Glaubensbekenntnis und Gottesdienst gestehret werden, sie werden zu andern Religionen nicht angehalten und keine Steuer an Geistliche anderer Religionen abstatten. Kurz, sie sollen jener Religionsfreiheit teilhaftig werden, welche S. Majestät der Landesfürst jedem Bekenntnisse gestattet. Es wird ihnen ein halbe Hube des nämlichen Grundes zur Aufbauung der Schule und des Friedhofes ohnentgeltlich angewiesen und das erforderliche Bauholz dargereicht werden. …

Sources

Karasek, Alfred, and Kurt Lück. 1931. Die Deutschen Siedlungen in Wolhynien: Geschichte, Volkskunde, Lebensfragen. Deutsche Gaue im Osten 3. Leipzig: Hirzel.

Lück, Kurt. 1934. Deutsche Aufbaukräfte in der Entwicklung Polens: Forschungen zur deutsch-polnischen Nachbarschaft im ostmitteleuropäischen Raum. Ostdeutsche Forschungen 1. Plauen: Wolff. Pages 431–34 (of the 1990 reprinting) available online here.

Schrag, Martin H. 1959. Volhynia (Ukraine). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available online here.