Brenkenhoffswalde in Neumark 3

The first two posts on Brenkenhoffswalde have presented Praestations-Tabellen (land tax lists) from 1767, two years after Mennonites moved into the village, and 1793. This post moves twelve years forward, to the year 1805.

The first two lists were recovered from Prussian governmental archives by Adalbert Goertz; the 1805 list was published by Adalbert and his wife Bärbel (Goertz and Goertz, 1985). Adalbert Goertz is also to be thanked for retrieving from the archives the map of Brenkenhoffswalde below.

As far as I am able to discern, the long up-and-down strips constitute the main part of the village; I believe that the smaller area to the right (east) was the area for artisans and renters. The numbers added to the map correspond to the 1805 plot numbers below.

What is immediately apparent is that the plots are not numbered consecutively from one end of the village to the other. Thus, plot 16 is on the far left, and to its right are plots 7 and then 8. Plot 15 is toward the far right, two plots over from number 4; plot 10 lies between them. Clearly, the system of labeling plots in that period differed from what most of us would expect.

The map of the village is interesting to see, but the names on the list are our real focus of attention. As before, the table includes the earlier lists alongside the new one, so we can compare and contrast easily.

	1767	1793	1805
1	Cornelius Vood	Cornelius Voot	Cornelius Voot Jr.
2	Hein Vood	Benjamin Voot, Tobias Dreger	Martin Schmidt, Gottlieb Krüger
3	Hans Vood x	Hans Voot, Berent Voot x	Bern Voot and Matthias Schmidt nunc: Berend Retzlaff
4	George Vood	Heinrich Buller	Heinrich Buller and Abraham Unruh
5	Peter Ratzlaff II	Joh. Quade olim Peter Buller	Johann Munck
6	Hein Ohnrau	Cornelius Voot	Cornelius Voot Sr., Gottfr. Lange
7	Heinrich Ohnrau	Johann Funcke	Johann Bethecke
8	Jacob Thomas	Jacob Voot	Jacob Voot Witwe [widow]
9	Jan Richert	Hein. Unruh	Johann Buller, Peter Unruh
10	Peter Vood I	Jacob Voot	Jacob Voot
11	Peter Vood II	Martin Unruh	Martin Unruh
12	Abraham Ohnrau	Hein. Unruh	Hein. Unruh
13	Witwe Reicherten	der von Sack olim David Unruh	Derr Sack zu Dolgen
14	Ernst Kühn	Wilh. Lange	Wilhelm Lange (Gottfr. Lange)
15	Hans Decker	Peter Buller Jr.	Simon Jahn
16	Peter Buller	Peter Buller	Peter Buller Jr.
17 x x		das rothe Haus, welches 5  Mennoniten unter sich haben x	Zum Rothen Hause: Benjamin Gans           Andr. Unruh           Gottfr. Lange

We see the same sort of movement from one plot to another that we observed earlier, and we might even notice changes within a family, such as plot 8 being inhabited by Jacob Voth in 1793 but owned by the widow Jacob Voth in 1805.

However, Jacob Voth was probably not the only one who died. Note that, whereas Peter Buller Sr. had lived in plot 16 in both 1767 and 1793, his son Peter Jr. now owns that plot, and Peter Sr. is not listed anywhere. The most logical conclusion is that Peter Sr. (351 in the Przechowka church book) passed away sometime after 1793 but before 1805. If our estimate of Peter Sr.’s age as fifty in 1793 was reasonably close, he probably died before his sixty-fifth birthday, perhaps even while he was still in his fifties.

Interestingly, Peter Jr., who already owned plot 15 in 1793, gave up ownership of that plot and took over plot 16, which had been in the family for nearly forty years. Whether his reason for doing so was financial, sentimental, or perhaps even to secure for himself a better piece of land is impossible for us to know.

Heinrich Buller, whom we suspect was Peter Sr.’s other son, remains at plot 4, where he was in 1793. The fact that he now shares the plot with another party, Abraham Unruh (number 12 in 1767?) may be significant, or it may simply reflect a common practice during that time.

Not to be missed is the addition of a new Buller: Johann of plot 9. Unless I am mistaken, he is the first Buller on record to have the name Johann. We have no indication of his relation to Peter Jr. and Heinrich, if there was any at all, although it would certainly make sense for there to be some sort of connection. If Peter Jr. and Heinrich were born before 1765 (a plausible assumption), then they could have had young adult children in 1805.

Since there are so many unknowns related to Johann, it seems best to leave him unconnected until we have clearer evidence telling us who he is. In spite of this uncertainty, there is a great deal that we can suggest with a fair amount of confidence.

1. Peter Buller Sr. (PCB 351) did have two sons and two daughters.

2. It is almost certain that his oldest son was likewise named Peter.

3. It is highly likely (in my view) but not certain that his second son was named Heinrich.

4. It is almost certain that Peter Sr. died sometime between 1793 and 1805.

5. Sometime between 1793 and 1805 another Buller took up residence in Brenkenhoffswalde: Johann.

That is quite a lot to gather from these lists, even if it is not everything that we would like to know. Next up is a list from 1806 that will stir the waters and raise more questions than it answers.

Work Cited

Goertz, Adalbert, and Bärbel Goertz. 1985. Mennonites of Neumark, Prussia, in 1805. Mennonite Family History 4:48–50.