Brenkenhoffswalde in Neumark 4

Two more Praestations-Tabellen (land tax lists) remain for Brenkenhoffswalde; then we will turn to the other prominent Mennonite village in the Neumark (Netzebruch, Driesen, Brandenburg) area: Franztal. To recap the highlights thus far:

1. The 1767 tax list names Peter Buller (Przechowka church book 351) as the owner (better: lease-holder) of lot/plot 16 in Brenkenhoffswalde and indicates that the Peter Buller family included Peter, his wife, two daughters, and two sons.


2. The 1793 tax list names Peter again but also includes a Peter Jr. and a Heinrich, the former almost certainly a son of Peter Sr. and the latter probably so.


3. The list from twelve years later, in 1805, does not include Peter Sr., probably because he was deceased, but a new Buller by the name of Johann joins Peter Jr. and Heinrich on the list.

The next Praestations-Tabel dates to 1806. As hinted in the last post, a comparison of the 1806 list with the others raises interesting questions. To enable a full comparison, all four tax lists are offered below in sets of two (the 1806 list is from Goertz 2001, 50).

	1767	1793
1	Cornelius Vood	Cornelius Voot
2	Hein Vood	Benjamin Voot, Tobias Dreger
3	Hans Vood	Hans Voot, Berent Voot
4	George Vood	Heinrich Buller
5	Peter Ratzlaff II	Joh. Quade olim Peter Buller
6	Hein Ohnrau	Cornelius Voot
7	Heinrich Ohnrau	Johann Funcke
8	Jacob Thomas	Jacob Voot
9	Jan Richert	Hein. Unruh
10	Peter Vood I	Jacob Voot
11	Peter Vood II	Martin Unruh
12	Abraham Ohnrau	Hein. Unruh
13	Witwe [widow] Reicherten	der von Sack olim David Unruh
14	Ernst Kühn	Wilh. Lange
15	Hans Decker	Peter Buller Jr.
16	Peter Buller	Peter Buller
17		das rothe Haus, welches 5 Mennoniten  unter sich haben

	1805	1806
1	Cornelius Voot Jr.	Cornelius Voot
2	Martin Schmidt, Gottlieb Krüger	Martin Schmidt olim Voot
3 x	Bern Voot and Matthias Schmidt nunc: Berend Retzlaffx	Mathes Schmidt olim Vootx x
4	Heinrich Buller and Abraham Unruh	Heinrich Buller
5	Johann Munck	Joh. Noach (?) olim Quade
6	Cornelius Voot Sr., Gottfr. Lange	Cornel. Voot Sr. and Johan Papke
7	Johann Bethecke	Joh. Betke olim Funke
8	Jacob Voot Witwe [widow]	Jacob Foot
9	Johann Buller, Peter Unruh	Heinrich Unruh
10	Jacob Voot	Jacob Voot
11	Martin Unruh	Martin Unruh
12	Hein. Unruh	Heinrich Unruh
13	Derr Sack zu Dolgen	aus Dominium zu Dolgen
14	Wilhelm Lange (Gottfr. Lange)	Wilhelm Lange
15	Simon Jahn	Peter Buller Jr.
16	Peter Buller Jr.	Simon Jahn olim Buller
17 xx x	Zum Rothen Hause: Benjamin Gans                     Andr. Unruh           Gottfr. Lange	die 5 Mennoniten auf dem Lauchstaedtschen Guthe x x

By way of passing observation, one might note that there were fewer Voths in Brenkenhoffswalde than previously but that it still was the most common family name (four), followed by Unruh (three), and Buller and Schmidt (two). For the most part, the plot owners from 1806 were the same as they had been in 1805. However, there were two significant changes, both involving Bullers.

In 1805, Johann Buller and Peter Unruh were recorded for plot 9; a year later, Heinrich Unruh was the sole owner. Just like that, Johann disappears from the record; at present, we do not know from what family line or where he originated, and we do not know where he went. All we can do is tuck his name away in our memory banks in case we encounter evidence about him in the future.

The other change is a genuine oddity. Last post we noted that, when Peter Buller Sr. died (or so we assume), Peter Jr. gave up his ownership of plot 15 and took over his father’s plot: 16; one Simon Jahn assumed possession of Peter Jr.’s former plot 15. However, the 1806 list has Peter Jr. back on plot 15 (his former possession) and Simon Jahn on plot 16 (Peter Sr.’s former plot). Is this a clerical error, or did Peter Jr. and Simon Jahn swap properties sometime during 1805–1806?

We may never find the answer to that question, but we do know that Peter Buller Jr. and Heinrich Buller both remained in Brenkenhoffswalde through 1806. Consequently, we also know that Bullers lived in Brenkenhoffswalde for at least four decades. The fifth and final tax list currently available to us, from 1826, will offer us additional insight on the members of our broader family who lived and worked in this small village in the Prussian Empire.

Work Cited

Goertz, Adalbert. 2001. Mennonites in Amt Driesen of the Neumark, Brandenburg, Prussia. Mennonite Family History 20:47–51.