For example, the previous post’s update of the list of congregation–village associations referenced an 1810 Schwetz-area census transcribed and translated by Esther Patkau and Glenn Penner (here). This census documented the fact that the village Gluchowka (Glugowko) was in the Schwetz area, not, as I earlier had it, 260 miles south–southwest of Deutsch-Wymysle.
Helpful as that geographical information is, it pales in comparison to other uses to which we can put the 1810 census. To show where the 1810 census can lead us in our own explorations, I will retrace my steps from the time that I rediscovered it online.
As has become my habit, after confirming the information that led me to the census, I spent a moment searching for any Bullers who might appear. In fact, fourteen of them did: nine from Przechowka and five from Ostrower Kämpe. The mention of the latter village called to mind the fact that some of the Bullers in Deutsch-Wymysle were born in Ostrower Kämpe, which led me to wonder if the Ostrower Kämpe Bullers listed in 1810 were those who ended up in Deutsch-Wymysle.
It was simple enough to check, and in short order I found the two Bullers of Deutsch-Wymysle who had been born in Ostrower Kämpe:
Helene and Eva Buller, both wives of David Nachtigall, were born in Ostrower Kämpe. Eva was born in 1816, so she obviously would not appear on the 1810 census. Helene, however, was born in 1809, so there was a chance that she might.
Navigating to the 1810 census here and scrolling down to the listings for Ostrower Kamp, I saw the following entry:
Ostrower Kamp
|
Buller
|
Helena
|
daughter
|
1
|
If Helena Buller was one year old in 1810, she must have been born in 1809, the same as the Helene Buller born 5 September 1809, according to the Deutsch-Wymysle church records. Since there was only one Buller family living in Ostrower Kämpe in 1810, the likelihood of Helena and Helene being the same person seems fairly high.
Thus Helene is no longer simply David Nachtigall’s first wife who died before her thirtieth birthday; according to the 1810 census she is also the daughter of Jacob and Maria Buller of Ostrower Kämpe, sister to Maria and Anna. As residents of Ostrower Kämpe, the Jacob Bullers were no doubt members of the Przechowka church, a fact confirmed by the GRANDMA database.
Interestingly, although GRANDMA makes the connection between Helene and Helena, it does not cite the 1810 census as confirmation. This reminds us of the need to cross-reference and coordinate all of the primary resources available to us, not just the Deutsch-Wymysle records but also the 1810 census and the Przechowka church book. As time permits, we will also do this for other members of the Deutsch-Wymysle congregation who originated in the Schwetz area.
The Helena Buller case also reminds us to look carefully at all of the evidence in front of us and to question everything that we think we know. For example, if Helena Buller was Deutsch-Wymysle’s Helene Buller (as appears to be the case), when did she/her family move to Deutsch-Wymysle?
Toward the top of the record we see a date of immigration of 17 August 1820, and at the very bottom a note sources that information to passport records at or from St. Petersburg. The same records appear to be reproduced in Peter Rempel’s Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828, where we read the following entry:
Jacob Buller from Ost(r, c)over Koemps, his wife Maria 39 (b. ca. 1781), daughter Maria 18 (b. ca. 1802), Anna 17 (b. ca. 1803), Helena 12 (b. ca. 1808), Eva 4 (b. ca. 1816), Katharina 2 (b. ca. 1818), Elisabeth 1 (b. ca. 1818). Passport from Marienwerder issued on July 11, 1820. (Rempel 2007, 172)
In spite of the disagreement in the age of Jacob’s wife Maria (her census age should be 29, not 22), this is clearly the same family as that listed in the 1810 census:
Ostrower Kamp
|
Buller
|
Jacob
|
34
| |
Ostrower Kamp
|
———
|
Maria
|
wife
|
22
|
Ostrower Kamp
|
Buller
|
Maria
|
daughter
|
8?
|
Ostrower Kamp
|
Buller
|
Anna
|
daughter
|
7
|
Ostrower Kamp
|
Buller
|
Helena
|
daughter
|
1
|
On the surface, this would seem to confirm that all records are in agreement. However, it overlooks several crucial questions. We will get to those questions in a moment, but we must first note that the Eva listed in the passport record as being born in 1816 is almost certainly the same Eva Buller who married David Nachigall after her sister Helene/Helena died (see the top scan above). Although we cannot be certain of this, the fact that the birth years match, that both Evas are located in Ostrower Kämpe, and that there is no other Buller family listed for that village at that time offers a compelling reason to identify the Evas.
We can reasonably conclude, then, that at least two daughters from this family were members of the Deutsch-Wymysle church. This raises several interrelated questions.
- If the daughters became members of the church after 1820, when the immigration record is dated, why is there no record of their parents Jacob and Maria in the church?
- Further, if Helene left Ostrower Kämpe in 1820, why do the Deutsch-Wymysle records state that her first child was born in Ostrower Kämpe in 1832, while her second was born in Piaski near Deutsch-Wymysle three years later?
- Most intriguing of all, how was it that the passport for immigration to Russia (!) led at least Helene and Eva to end up in Deutsch-Wymysle, which was part of the Congress Kingdom of Poland?
The first question is the easiest to answer: the Deutsch-Wymsyle church records that we have are not the originals (they were lost in a fire in the mid-1800s, and a second set were lost at the end of World War II), so we cannot expect them to be complete (thanks to Glenn Penner for this reminder). Thus it is possible that Jacob and Maria Buller and the other members of the family were a part of the church and were recorded in the first church records but were forgotten by the time the replacement records were compiled.
The same circumstances may also answer the second question. The Deutsch-Wymysle records state twice that Helene’s first child, a son, was born at Ostrower Kämpe, which contradicts the immigration record that has her leaving Ostrower Kämpe in 1820. It may be that the (later) church records are mistaken on this matter, that Helene met and married David Nachtigall when they both lived in the area of the Deutsch-Wymysle church.
The third question has no clear answer. It is possible, one would think, that Jacob and Maria Buller secured a visa to emigrate to Russia, began the journey, and then changed plans and decided to settle in Deutsch-Wymysle. The emigration visa was issued by the Russian General Consulate in Danzig, so presumably the visa holders had permission to move to Russia but were under no obligation to do so. Even if there was an expectation that the visa holder would emigrate, there was little that the Russian government could do to enforce that upon someone who did not live within its boundaries.
Maybe there is some other explanation for the contradictory evidence. At the least, this case reminds us to trace down and cross-reference all the primary sources at hand. Sometimes the evidence will fit neatly together; sometimes it will require us to try to discover why it does not cohere.
To tie up the loose ends of this case, we can safely conclude that the Helene Buller Nachtigall of the Deutsch-Wymysle church records is the same as the Helena Buller listed in the 1810 Schwetz census. She is also, according to GRANDMA, the Helena Buller recorded in the Przechowka church book. When Helene died before the age of thirty, her surviving spouse David Nachtigall married her younger sister Eva. That much we know.
What we do not know is whether Helene’s entire family—her mother, father, and all sisters—also joined the Deutsch-Wymysle church, although it seems likely that they did. Neither do we know with certainty when the family moved to the Deutsch-Wymysle area, although the year 1820 or shortly thereafter seems the most probable.
Given what we do and do not know in this case, we can also conclude that, although the Deutsch-Wymysle church records are generally reliable, because they are not the original records, they may well contain mistakes and thus stand in need of correction. This will be good to keep in mind as we explore other connections between the church records and other historical sources, such as the 1810 census and the Przechowka church book.
Work Cited
Rempel. Peter. 2007. Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828. Edited by Alfred H. Redekopp and Richard D. Thiessen. Winnepeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.
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