The Rovno register 1

Significant discovery often results from nothing more than observing, paying close attention, then reflecting on what one has seen. The 1819–1820 Rovno register provides us a great opportunity to put this into practice.

To save readers from having to click back and forth between windows, families 1–10 of the listings from the translation posted online by Richard D. Thiessen (Chaiderman 1997) are reproduced below.

1*		Heinrrich Dirks		33
		his wife Maria				47
		son David		7
		daughters Maria				16
		Anna				9
		Eva				1
2		Andreas Buller		53
		his wife Katherina				30
		daughter Helena				2
3*		Jacob Richert		37
		his wife Maria				33
		their children
		sons Jacob		10
		David		5
		daughters Katherina				12
		Maria				1
		nephew Jacob Nachtigal		16
4		David Nachtigal		22
		his wife Anna				30
		son Jacob		1
5*		Jacob Tzlivk [Zielke]		37
		his wife Maria				46
		sons Johan		11
		Friedrich		2
		daughters Maria				10
		Katherina				8
		Helena				1
6*		David Foth		47
		his wife Maria				38
7*		Martin Bier		47
		his daughter Pitrunega				20
8*		Heinrich Schperling		31
		his wife Anna				25
		daughter Helena				5
9		Christian Teske		27
		his brothers Samuel		23
		Michael		21
		their mother Anna				50
10		Philip Bier		15
		his mother Sara				35
		daughter Helena				14

Before we make specific observations about the list, it is important to recall what is stated in the register about families 1–10:

These Mennonites left the Kingdom of Prussia in 1810. They settled in Rovno (Rivnenska) Region on grounds owned by the town of Wegtzin [Wysock] in the estate of the landowner Waclav Borejko (Watzav Warike) in 1811, upon conditions they have arranged with the landowner to whom they pay taxes (rent).

Families 1–10 are said to have settled on the land of Waclav Borejko in 1811. The register was compiled in 1819 or 1820, at least eight, possibly nine, years later. With that as background, let us look at the list more carefully.

1. Families 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 have asterisks to indicate that these are original settlers per the 1811 contract. Although we will make a few observations about some of them, there is nothing puzzling about the information that we read. Such cannot be said for the other families.

2. Consider family 4, for example. According to the register, David Nachtigal was twenty-two in 1819–1820, his wife Anna thirty. A Thobias Nachtigal is listed on the 1811 contract but no David, which is not surprising, since David was fourteen at that time. How is it possible, then, for the Rovno register to list David as one of those who settled in Zofyovka in 1811?

One wonders if Anna, who was eight years older than David, was the wife of an original settler who passed away between 1811 and 1819, after which she married David (son of Thobias Nachtigal?). If so, then presumably David became the head of the household Anna had shared with her first husband, and thus it would make sense to count this household as among the 1811 settlers.

3. An earlier post (here) wondered aloud if Andreas Buller (family 2) was a son of one of the two Bullers listed on the 1811 contract: Heinrich or David. A more careful look at the Rovno register above completely disproves that thought: Andreas was fifty-three at the time of the register, far too old to have been a child of Heinrich or David Buller.

What is baffling is how Andreas Buller can be included in the list of 1811 settlers in the register above but not named in the 1811 contract. Noting the significant age difference between Andreas and his wife Katherina, the thought comes to mind that perhaps Katherina Buller’s situation was like that postulated for Anna Nachtigal. Is it possible that Andreas was Katherina’s second husband and that he became the head of an 1811 household by marrying her?

4. Further questions revolve around the household led by Christian Teske (family 9; earlier written as Tik). This surname appears nowhere on the 1811 contract, so it is impossible to say why this family is listed as original 1811 settlers. Similarly family 10. There was only one Bier family on the 1811 contract (Martin, family 7), so it is anyone’s guess why family 10 was listed as an original settler family.

To sum up thus far, although we can identify why six of these ten families were considered original settlers (their names appear on the 1811 contracts), we can only guess about two others (families 2 and 4) and have no idea on the remaining two (families 9 and 10). At the least, we must hold open the possibility that the register is not speaking with absolute precision when it lists families 1–10 as settling in Zofyovka in 1811.

Several other more general observations are worth making and contemplating.

5. Of course, important for our family is the fact that Helena Zielke, the future wife of David Buller, is included on the Rovno register (highlighted in red).

6. Most of the families, as expected, include a husband and a wife and, in most instances, children. However, families 7, 9, and 10 show disruption or variation. In family 7 Martin Bier lives with his twenty-year-old daughter Pitrunega. No doubt Martin was a widower. If his daughter married, would Martin be included in her household? Would he be left to find a new wife or spend the rest of his days alone?

Family 10, also Biers, shows the opposite situation. Here an adult woman is left with no husband. Interestingly, her fifteen-year-old son is listed as the head of household, and she is subordinated to him.

Finally, family 9, the Teskes, consisted of three brothers and their mother living under one roof. Note how she is placed last, after all the adult males are listed. It is difficult to imagine a clearer example of the prioritization of males in that time and place than the name orders observed in families 9 and 10.

Obviously, there are no big take-aways from this exercise, but we do understand better what we do not know (what the register means when it says that all these families settled in 1811), as well as the reality of life for our and other Mennonite families in Volhynia. Death was an ever-present threat even for adults (probably five of the ten families listed had been affected by the death of a spouse), and families were constantly being reshaped in order to enable everyone to survive together. Life in nineteenth-century Volhynia truly seems to have been, as Thomas Hobbes characterized it, “nasty, brutish, and short,” which makes it all the more remarkable that our family survived and perhaps even thrived in that time and place.

Source

Chaiderman, Sergei, trans. 1997. Register of Mennonites in Rovno Region, Volhynia, 1819–1820. Posted by Richard D. Thiessen on the Mennonite Genealogy website. Available online here.