Family line 1: Hans 340

Several days ago we introduced a chart showing the first four generations of male Bullers listed in the Przechowka church book. This post will explore the chart and the PCB further, in order to understand better both the information recorded and the apparent gaps in the record. To access the full-screen version of the chart, click here.

We begin by focusing on the generation 4 offspring of Hans 341, the column on the far left (column A). Although the chart records only four generations, the PCB also presents the names of generation 5 and at least one member of generation 6. Although those names are omitted from the chart due to limited space, we do not want to ignore those Bullers altogether.

What is interesting and noteworthy about column A, Hans 341’s line, is that only two members of his generation 5 are listed in the PCB. Hans’s three sons certainly fathered more than two grandchildren. However, the first two sons in that family line moved away from the Schwetz locale to the Neumark (aka Brandenburg or Driessen) area. As a result of their move, one would think, information about them is not included in the PCB. To state the matter directly, we know that there must have been far more descendants of Hans 341 than are listed, but the church book does not record them.

The same is true of the generation 4 descendants of George 342 in column B. The PCB does not list any daughters for George 342, nor does it list a single grandchild for this family line. It is possible, of course, that George 342 had no daughters (just two sons) and no grandchildren, but that is not what we have seen with other Buller families of that era. It seems far more likely that the descendants of George 342 simply were not known to the compilers of the church book. Why? They, too, had left Schwetz and moved to the Neumark area.

By way of contrast, Heinrich 343’s (column C) one son, Benjamin, has six children recorded in the PCB. In all likelihood, this is not a sign of Benjamin’s ability to father more children than his cousins but rather a simple result of the fact that he still lived near Schwetz when the PCB was compiled. In fact, Benjmain did not leave the Schwetz area until 1820, when he and the rest of the church moved to the village Alexanderwohl in Molotschna colony.

What is the point of making these observations about the three sons and associated family lines of Hans 340 (generation 2)? It is a matter of identifying possibilities and weighing probabilities. If we discover that the other Buller lines listed on the chart are apparently well-recorded in the PCB, and if Benjamin father of our David is not a member of those lines, then the possibility increases that our Benjamin derived from the Buller line that is not so completely recorded.

To be clear, at this point all we can say with certainty is that two of the three Buller lines descended from Hans 340 in generation 2 are not well-attested in the PCB. We assume there were other Buller descendants from these lines, but we do not yet know who they were. We certainly do not know if Benjamin father of our David was a member of one of these lines. The possibility is intriguing and enticing, but that counts for nothing in terms of evidence. There may be another explanation that we have not yet discovered or fully explored. The search for Benjamin’s father goes on.