The contract and the registers

The last post explored the relation between Martin Schrag’s 1959 article on Volhynia (here) and an 1811 contract between Waclav Borejko and twenty-one Mennonite families (including two Buller families). Based on an exact match between the names that Schrag listed and the names who were parties to the contract, we concluded that the contract was indeed the source on which Schrag drew. Extrapolating further from what Schrag says about the location of the land in question—on Waclav Borejko’s estate north of Wysock, specifically the village of Zofyovka—we concluded that Benjamin and Helena Buller (parents of David) settled in the same village north of Wysock six years later, in 1817.

This post picks up at that point to compare the list of signatories to the contract with the names listed on Rovno 1 and Rovno 2, to see what that might imply about what had happened in the first years of the life of the village Zofyovka.

Aerial view of the area in which Zofyovka and its fields were located. The Horyn River is just to the east.

If you recall, the Rovno 1 register listed eighteen families in groups based on when a family migrated to Volhynia and/or settled on Waclav Borejko’s estate, that is, Zofyovka. Families 1–10 in Rovno 1, for example, left Prussia in 1810 and settled in Rovno in 1811, the same year the contract between Waclav Borejko and the Mennonites was made. This raises the question as to how many of the names on the 1811 contract appear among the families in Rovno 1, especially among families 1–10, who are reported to have settled on Waclav Borejko’s estate in 1811. Once again, a table helps to organize the data.

1811 Contract	Rovno 1 (1819–1820)
Andreas Pankrac
Andreas Pankrac
Thobias Nachtigall
Heinrich Boller
Helene Derkien
Jakob Cilke	Jacob Tzlivk (1811)
Jakob Richard	Jacob Richert (1811)
David Joot	David Foth (1811)
Heinricht Dirks	Heinrich Dwerkb (1811)
Gotthilf Beese
Johann Nikel	Johan Nickel (1817)
Erdmann Nikel	Erdman Nickel (1817?)
Peter Unruh
Heinrich Joot
David Boller
Lorenz Sperling
Jakob Joot
Martin Beier	Martin Bier (1811)
Thobias Sperling
Peter Sperling
Heinrich Sperling	Heinrich Schpulingo (1811)

1. Of the twenty-one families who signed the contract with Waclav Borejko in 1811, only eight were listed as still being on the land less than a decade later. Of course, it is always possible that the Rovno 1 register is not a complete list and that some or many of the other names might be found on a related list. However, the disappearance of so many names is striking.

2. Two of the names on the contract and Rovno 1 are reported on the latter to have come to Rovno in 1817 (it seems), so one wonders if these are the same individuals as those who signed the contract or different persons who coincidentally had the same name.

3. It seems that at least thirteen and perhaps as many as fifteen of the original settlers were no longer living in Zofyovka by the time the Rovno 1 register was compiled (1819–1820), less than a decade later. It is hard to imagine that all of them died, to have their places taken by an heir, although that no doubt happened in some cases (see immediately below). It is more likely that most of these families left for some other locale, to have their places taken by new Mennonite families.

4. Of the first ten families on Rovno 1 (those who are said to have settled in Zofyovka in 1811 and whose names should thus be on the contract), only six actually are named on the contract. Four are missing for some reason: Andreas Buller, David Nachtigal, Christian Tik, and Philip Bier. One wonders if Andreas Buller was a son of one of the two Bullers on the contract (Heinrich, David) who do not appear on Rovno 1. That is, Andreas may have taken over the family lease when his father (whoever it was) passed away. If so, his name would not be on the contract (he was a child and thus did not sign), but it would still be correct to say that he came to Zofyovka in 1811, since he did so along with his adult father.

We might suppose the same thing for David Nachtigal and Thobias Nachtigall. Similarly, Philip Bier might be a son of Martin Bier who leased his own property once he reached the age of maturity. Of these four, only Christian Tik is an enigma. How he fits into the 1811 situation in Zofyovka is a mystery.

5. The passing of land from father to son between 1811 and 1819/1820 still does not adequately explain why so many original settlers were missing after such a short time. In all probability, the geography of the area does. The Zofyovka land was located, by all reports, close to the Horyn River. It was thus marshy and subject to flooding. In fact, Kurt Lück writes that the local population laughed at the Mennonites for trying to farm this wetland (“Desjatinen Sumpfgebiet am Horyn in Zofijówka bei Wysozk niederliessen, haben die Ukrainer sie ausgelacht”). Over time, one would assume, some settlers moved to a more promising location.

6. One final way of comparing the contract and Rovno lists is by surname.

1811 Contract	Rovno 1 and 2 (normalized spellings)
Pankrac—2	Pankratz—1
Nachtigall—1	Nachtigal—1
Boller—2	Buller—2
Derkien/Dirks—2	Dirks—1
Cilke—1	Zielke—1
Richard—1	Richert—1
Joot—3	Voth—1
Beese—1
Nikel—2	Nickel—2
Unruh—1	Unruh—1
Sperling—4	Sperling—1
Beier—1	Beyer—2
	Tik—1
	Baltzer—1
	Wedel—1
	Köhn—1
	Schmidt—5
	Ratzlaff—1
	Becker—1
	Tzeevka—1 (Zielke?)

Almost all of the original surnames were still represented in 1819–1820, but eight new surnames had been added to the mix. Note especially the influx of Schmidts, who at that time were the largest family group in the village. Even if the geography of the area was against the residents of Zofyovka, this did not prompt everyone to leave right away, nor did it prevent new settlers from coming to see what they could make of the situation.

7. Finally, why did Benjamin and Helena move to Zofyovka in 1817? Presumably because members of the immediate or extended family had blazed that trail. We cannot yet say whether Heinrich or David Boller (Buller) were closely related to Benjamin, but it is highly likely that there was at least some contact between them before Benjamin trekked hundreds of miles to settle in a small village in the Rovno district of Volhynia. Perhaps Benjamin even came from the same place in Prussia where Heinrich or David had lived before they emigrated to Volhynia. Nothing more than guess and hypothesis at this point, but perhaps further research will shed light on this question, as it has on so many others.

Sources

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.