Alongside our exploration of the Russian steppe, we begin with this post a new series that is more focused on our specific family line. The goal of this series is simple: to see if we can link our earliest known ancestor Benjamin (see here for an earlier discussion of this person) to some named Buller in the Przechovka Mennonite church. The prompt for this series is an email received from Glenn Penner some time back in which he “speculated” about the identity of the distant ancestor whom we have been referring to as Benjamin 1.
Glenn’s email is dense (in the good sense of the term) and detailed, and it will require time and effort to unpack, understand, and appreciate. This post will simply present the email in its entirety so that we can all begin with the same evidence, then sift through it together over the coming posts. Glenn writes:
Some speculation about the Benjamin Bullers:
I believe that your ancestor Benjamin Buller (GRANDMA 402138) was the son of Benjamin who was both 60393 and 32139. I believe that not long after Benjamin 2 moved to Volhynia, his father Benjamin 1 (who would have been a widower of about 70 or more years) left for South Russia with his daughter Catharina and her husband Johann Ratzlaff (and the majority of the Przechowka congregation). Considering the rarity of the name Benjamin among the early Bullers I cannot think of any other possibility without inventing more Benjamin Bullers (and I have no documentation available that would justify that).
I also believe that Benjamin 1 was the Benjamin Buller found in Deutsch Konopath in the 1789 census of Mennonite land owners in West Prussia. Note that 32139 was married in Deutsch Konopath in 1774.
The only inconsistency here is that 60393 is given the patronymic Benjamin in the 1835 census and 32139 is known to be the son of Heinrich Buller. This ties in with some work I have been doing on the 1835 census. I have found that many of the men who died between the 1816 and 1835 censuses were given the same patronymic as their first names in the 1835 census and that some of these are incorrect. This is particularly true for those men who were older when they died (their fathers would have died in Prussia and their children never knew these grandfathers). This would be the case for Benjamin 1. It is likely that none of his survivors in Alexanderwohl knew the name of Benjamin 1’s father. It seems to me that whenever this was the case for the 1835 census the census taker simply repeated the deceased man’s name as the middle name patronymic.
I also believe that Benjamin 2 was the 19-year-old Benjamin Buller found in Przechowko in 1810 (http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/Schwetz_1810.htm). Again I see no other possibility. Your interpretation (as well as mine) of the Volhynian census has him coming from Prussia in 1817. If that is the case his marriage would have taken place in Prussia. The Mennonites of this region lived in the Schwetz Evangelical Lutheran parish. Since the state (Evangelical Lutheran) church was required to record the vital statistics of the Mennonites in their parishes from 1800 on, the Schwetz Lutheran church records should contain the marriage of Benjamin 2 and Helena (ca. 1813–15) and probably the birth of Benjamin 3 (ca. 1816). I cannot find any Mennonite entries in the Schwetz records which are available on microfilm. I noticed also that Adalbert Goertz extracted many Mennonite events from the Culm and Graudenz Lutheran records but not the Schwetz records. I see two possibilities of why there are no Mennonites in the Schwetz records: (1) all of the Lutheran ministers from 1800 until 1874 (when Mennonites were finally granted citizenship) did not record Mennonites, in violation of the law of 1800; or (2) they kept a separate register of Mennonite vital records (as was often done) and that/those register/s is/are missing.
I believe that your ancestor Benjamin Buller (GRANDMA 402138) was the son of Benjamin who was both 60393 and 32139. I believe that not long after Benjamin 2 moved to Volhynia, his father Benjamin 1 (who would have been a widower of about 70 or more years) left for South Russia with his daughter Catharina and her husband Johann Ratzlaff (and the majority of the Przechowka congregation). Considering the rarity of the name Benjamin among the early Bullers I cannot think of any other possibility without inventing more Benjamin Bullers (and I have no documentation available that would justify that).
I also believe that Benjamin 1 was the Benjamin Buller found in Deutsch Konopath in the 1789 census of Mennonite land owners in West Prussia. Note that 32139 was married in Deutsch Konopath in 1774.
The only inconsistency here is that 60393 is given the patronymic Benjamin in the 1835 census and 32139 is known to be the son of Heinrich Buller. This ties in with some work I have been doing on the 1835 census. I have found that many of the men who died between the 1816 and 1835 censuses were given the same patronymic as their first names in the 1835 census and that some of these are incorrect. This is particularly true for those men who were older when they died (their fathers would have died in Prussia and their children never knew these grandfathers). This would be the case for Benjamin 1. It is likely that none of his survivors in Alexanderwohl knew the name of Benjamin 1’s father. It seems to me that whenever this was the case for the 1835 census the census taker simply repeated the deceased man’s name as the middle name patronymic.
I also believe that Benjamin 2 was the 19-year-old Benjamin Buller found in Przechowko in 1810 (http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/Schwetz_1810.htm). Again I see no other possibility. Your interpretation (as well as mine) of the Volhynian census has him coming from Prussia in 1817. If that is the case his marriage would have taken place in Prussia. The Mennonites of this region lived in the Schwetz Evangelical Lutheran parish. Since the state (Evangelical Lutheran) church was required to record the vital statistics of the Mennonites in their parishes from 1800 on, the Schwetz Lutheran church records should contain the marriage of Benjamin 2 and Helena (ca. 1813–15) and probably the birth of Benjamin 3 (ca. 1816). I cannot find any Mennonite entries in the Schwetz records which are available on microfilm. I noticed also that Adalbert Goertz extracted many Mennonite events from the Culm and Graudenz Lutheran records but not the Schwetz records. I see two possibilities of why there are no Mennonites in the Schwetz records: (1) all of the Lutheran ministers from 1800 until 1874 (when Mennonites were finally granted citizenship) did not record Mennonites, in violation of the law of 1800; or (2) they kept a separate register of Mennonite vital records (as was often done) and that/those register/s is/are missing.
As I said, Glenn’s proposal is dense and will demand our careful attention. Whether or not we end up agreeing with his reconstruction remains to be seen. Whatever the outcome, many thanks to Glenn for sharing his incredible expertise and his valuable time with a grateful group of hicks from Lushton.
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