Brenkenhoffswalde in Neumark 5

Before we examine the final land tax list (Praestations-Tabel) currently available to us, let’s take a moment to compare the map shown earlier (thanks to Adalbert Goertz) with an aerial view of Brenkenhoffswalde today.

If you recall, we were able to identify the plots in which Brenkenhoffswalde’s Bullers lived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries:

• 16: Peter Sr.
• 15: Peter Jr.
• 4: Heinrich
• 9: Johann

Remarkably, an aerial view of Brenkenhoffswalde (Błotnica) today still shows the division of land into farm plots, and it seems possible to correlate the strips in the 1805 map above with the current layout of the village. Thus the plots of Peter Sr. and Jr., Heinrich, and Johann can be located with a relative degree of accuracy, though obviously not with absolute certainty, in the photograph below.

Did any of our direct ancestors live in Brenkenhoffswalde? We cannot say at this time. All we know is that part of our larger family called this small village home for at least four decades, if not more.

The 1806 tax list recorded Peter Jr. and Heinrich Buller as the only remaining Bullers in the village of Brenkenhoffswalde. What do we find twenty years later, in 1826? As always, we begin by presenting the data (provided by Goertz 2001, 50–51), then develop conclusions based on what we see.

The 1826 register differs from all the others we have surveyed, in that it lists multiple owners for most plots. Whether this reflects the history of ownership or joint ownership or sole ownership of smaller subdivisions of the plot (i.e., an original plot was divided and leased to different individuals) is not immediately clear. The names recorded for each plot are as follows:

1.   a. Cornelius Voth

      b. Gottf. Lange aus Alt Haferwiese [from Alt-Haferwiese, a village ca. 60 miles northwest?]

2.   a. Georg Grüneberg

      b. derselbe [the same]

      c. Martin Schmidt

      d. Martin Krüger

3.   a. Matthias Schmidts Wittwe [widow]

      b. Behrend Voth

4.   a. Daniel Sommer

      b. Friedrich Krug

5.   Joh. Sigismund Munke

6.   a. Cornelius Voth

      b. Johann Püpke aus Netzbruch [from Netzbruch, a village ca. 2 miles southeast?]

7.   a. Johann Bethke

      b. Peter Voth

      c. Johann Lange aus Franzthal [from Franztal, a village ca. 2 miles east]

8.   Verwittwete [widower] Jacob Voth

9.   a. Peter Ganz

      b. Christian Krenzke

      c. Friedrich Rettschlag

      d. Christ. Pidde aus Gertzlow [from Gertzlow, a village?]

      e. Michael Klakow

10. Jacob Voth

11. a. Gottfried Kriese

      b. Christian Belicke

      c. Daniel Krüger aus Franzthal

12. a. Friedrich Lüttke

      b. Friedrich Schulz

13. a. Behrend Foth

      b. Michael Dittmann aus Franzthal

14. Wilhelm Lange

15. Carl Hoffmann

16. Gottlieb Sturzbecher

17. Für das ehemals 5 Mennonisten auf dem Lauchstaedtschen Gute in Alt Haferwiesen brache NG übereignete 
      Rodeland [meaning unclear, but it may have something to do with meadows, that is, pastureland]

      a. Gottlieb Lange zu Alt Haferwiese [to Alt Haferwiese]

      b. Benjamin Unruh daselbst [there]

      c. Daniel Roehlsche Erben zu Netzbruch, nunc Adam aus Dragebruch [heir to Netzbruch, now Adam of Dragebruch]

A comparison of this 1826 list and the 1806 one reveals both significant continuity and noteworthy change during this twenty-year period.

1. The continuity is reflected the fact that many of the same individuals are listed as owners in both registers:

1	Cornelius Voot	1a	Cornelius Voth
2	Martin Schmidt	2c	Martin Schmidt
3	Mathes Schmidt	3a	Matthias Schmidt’s widow
5	Johann Munck	5	Joh. Sigismund Munke
6	Cornel. Voot Sr. and Johan Papke	6a 6b	Cornelius Voth Johann Püpke
7	Joh. Betke	7a	Johann Bethke
8	Jacob Foot	8	widower Jacob Voth
10	Jacob Voot	10	Jacob Voth
14	Wilhelm Lange	14	Wilhelm Lange

Nine of the fifteen plots with named lease-holders have the same owners in both lists. One notices also that the Voth presence remains strong in the village, with a quarter of all plots held by this family. The two Schmidt families likewise continue to live and work in Brenkenhoffswalde.

2. The noteworthy change should be obvious to readers of this blog: there are no Bullers listed in the register—not one. After four decades of Buller inhabitation of Brenkenhoffswalde, it appears that all the Bullers have left the village. It is possible, of course, that one or more Bullers remain in the “renter” area of the village (to the east of the main part), but no Bullers hold leases on the village farmland.

3. Ours is not the only family to disappear from Brenkenhoffswalde: all the Unruhs are gone as well. In 1806 the Bullers and Unruhs accounted for five of the village’s fifteen land-holding families; now neither family appears on the register.

We do not know at this point where all the Bullers and Unruhs went. It is possible that all the members of both families passed away, but that does not seem likely. More plausible is the hypothesis that both family groups relocated to another area—someplace like Volhynia, for example. Maybe we will discover what happened to these Bullers, maybe it will remain a mystery—either way, the search will go on.

Work Cited

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