Alexanderwohl 16

The previous two posts in this series covered Benjamin Heinrich Buller, our own ancestor, who resided at Alexanderwohl 16. We pick up at that point with this post.

Wirtschaft 17

The evidence of the index to the census and the census itself is straightforward, listing only one head of household for this plot:

Schmidt, Heinrich Jakob (b. ca.1796)

Identifying this person is not so simple, however, since none of the Heinrich Schmidts with a father named Jacob listed in GRANDMA seems to match. John Richert identifies him as GM 50991, which seems to be a good overall match, since that person had a son named Jacob and a daughter named Anna whose birth years match the ages given for children of the same names on the census. 

That does not mean that everything is clear with Heinrich Schmidt—far from it. The census states that his children Jacob and Anna are from his second marriage, and Jacob’s age of eleven would put the date of that marriage at 1823 or thereabouts. The census also gives Schmidt’s wife’s name as Katharina. The GRANDMA entry for Schmidt, not surprisingly, lists two wives.

What is surprising is that Katharina—a.k.a. Trincke (remember that Katharina = Trincke, as we saw in our own family; see here)—is listed first, with another wife listed second.  Further, the second wife listed, Maria Schmidt, did not marry Heinrich until his first wife, Katharina, died on 15 February 1843. If Katharina was Schmidt’s second wife, as the 1835 census clearly states, then he must have had a wife before her, a wife not listed in any records known to us. Thus Heinrich had three wives over the course of his life: an unknown wife, Katharina Harpart, and Maria Schmidt.

A few other details will permit us to fill out the picture a bit further. Note that Heinrich and Katharina were married on 22 December 1822. The census indicates that he emigrated to Molotschna in 1822. Logic dictates that, unless he arrived and arranged the marriage within the last two weeks of the year, he must have arrived earlier in the year and then married Katharina Harpart, who had already settled in Alexanderwohl in 1819 along with her sister and brother-in-law Peter Johann Unrau (see here for that family; thanks to John Richert for noting that).

One final mystery. We do not know who Heinrich’s first wife was or when she died; thus we do not know if she died before Heinrich came to Alexanderwohl or made the trip with him and then died, which led Heinrich to remarry later that year. The immigration records, unfortunately, do not settle the matter, since they list two Heinrich Schmidts, both of whom could be construed as this Heinrich. One was accompanied by a female and settled in Molotschna in 1822 (Rempel 2007, 186); the other was single when he arrived and settled in Alexanderwohl in 1823 (191). The first Heinrich received a governmental loan to establish a household; the second received financial aid of an unspecified nature (several landless residents of Alexanderwohl received the same aid). I incline toward thinking that the first is our Heinrich, but it may well be the second.

In the end, some key details about Heinrich Schmidt remain unknown. In fact, we cannot even point to unambiguous evidence that he was associated with the Przechovka church in Prussia/Poland, although it is a safe bet that he was, given the close connection of the Schmidt family with that church. The one thing we can conclude with certainty is that Heinrich Schmidt was the founding settler of Alexanderwohl 17, so we will add him to our list as such.

Wirtschaft 18

This one will be quick. The census lists only one person for Alexanderwohl 18:

Schmidt, Jakob David (b. ca.1789)

We can identify this person as GM 32895, based on the name of his father and all the names of his and wife Anna Schmidt’s living children (seven of them) in 1835. Although neither Jacob Schmidt nor Anna Schmidt are listed in the Przechovka church book, both of their fathers (distant relatives) are, which establishes the connection of this couple with that Polish/Prussian church.

The census indicates that the couple emigrated to Alexanderwohl in 1819, so they were presumably part of the first Przechovka group. In fact, they are listed as having received their passport on 13 July 1819 and their visa authorizing travel one week later on 20 July. Why is this worth noting? The visa lists Jacob Schmidt, a “Mennonite from Glogowko with his wife” (Rempel 2007, 137)—in other words, just the couple. According to GRANDMA, their first child was born 21 July 1819, one day after the visa was issued. If both sets of dates are given according to the same system (Julian or Gregorian), then Anna gave birth to a child just before their 900-mile journey began. Once again, the strength and determination of the Mennonites who colonized Molotschna, women and men alike, shines through.

There are no other residents of Alexanderwohl 18, so we can safely conclude that this early settler family was, in fact, the founding settler of this Wirtschaft.

Wirtschaft	Settler	GM Number	Notes
1	Martin Jacob Kornelsen	33801	PCB: 1250; emigrated 1820
	Anna Unrau	32780	first husband: David Buller
2	Heinrich Peter Block	29475	settlement year: 1823
3	?????
4	Peter Jacob Voth	268847	PCB ???; emigrated 1820
5	Heinrich David Schmidt	32966	PCB 1345; emigrated 1819
	Maricke Buller	32967	PCB 1355
6	Peter Johann Unrau	60318	PCB 1229; emigrated 1819
7	David Bernhard Voth	60325	Przechovka; emigrated 1820
8	?? Peter Franz Goerz	819683	to Alexanderwohl in 1826
9	Jacob Peter Buller	318737	PCB 377; emigrated 1820
10	David Johann Unrau	87011	PCB 987; emigrated 1820
11	Heinrich Isaak Schroeder	14829	Schönsee church; emigrated 1820
12	Jacob Jacob Pankratz	43123	PCB 727; emigrated 1820
13	?????
14	Heinrich Peter Unrau	86839	PCB 1149; emigrated 1819
15	Jacob Jacob Buller	5587	PCB 1139; emigrated 1819; settled 1822
16	Johann Peter Ratzlaff	60394	Przechovka; son-in-law to Benjamin Heinrich Buller
17	Heinrich Jacob Schmidt	50991	Przechovka
18	Jacob David Schmidt	32895	Przechovka

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.