Our interest in the Molotschna village of Alexanderwohl, to which we will return shortly, does not exist in a vacuum. That is, we are not interested in Alexanderwohl strictly for its own sake, not even because it was the final resting place of Benjamin Heinrich Buller, great-great-great-grandfather to Grandpa Chris. In fact, Alexanderwohl is but one branch of a much larger tree, a tree that was rooted in the Schwetz area and at various times had branches extending west to the Neumark churches of Franztal and Brenkenhoffswalde, east to Mennonite groups in Volhynia, southeast to the Deutsch-Wymsle congregation of Poland, and much farther southeast to villages and/or churches in Molotschna, including, among others, Alexanderwohl, Gnadenfeld, Waldheim, and Franztal.
Not only is Przechovka the tree trunk from which these branches extend; Przechovka is the church where the Bullers’ Mennonite history begins, with George Buller and Dina Thoms and their children. We remain interested in all of the branches, and we will explore each one as thoroughly as we are able, but inevitably we always return to the tree trunk, since that is what holds all the pieces together.
A pivotal resource for learning about the Przechovka congregation is the church book that records the names and noteworthy dates of many of its members. We have consulted that book in numerous posts to expand and supplement and correct details of our family history. Recently that book has become much more accessible to anyone who would like to explore its contents—including those with neither the expertise nor the patience to read its cursive German writing.
Specifically, Rod Ratzlaff has transcribed and edited online the English translation of key parts of the church book by Jacob A. Duerksen, Velda Richert-Duerksen, and the Mennonite Immigrant Historical Foundation staff in Goessel, Kansas (see here). In addition to a listing and brief description of the church families by surname (the Gültige Numbers), individual files record information according to different categories: names, baptisms, marriages, deaths, and an index register. An added bonus is a brief introduction that provides background to the book and even offers a list of equivalencies for the diminutive and full forms of ten feminine names (e.g., Ancke = Anna).
We will have many occasions to draw upon this valuable work, including the translation of the Buller entry (number 2) in the Gültige Numbers file. The scan below presents the original of our family entry as it appears in the church book; the translation immediately follows.
This is the first time that this family name appears. All the Bullers are descendants of this family. His given name and original residence are not known. He died at a very old age. The only information about his marital status is a notation found with No. 930B and No. 339. This indicates that he was married to Jacob Thomsen’s daughter, Dina, and that she survived him. Jacob Thoms, No. 930, lived at Dorposch.
We will return to this and the other family summaries in the near future, to imagine the implications that might follow from the opening sentence of the Buller entry: “This is the first time that this family name appears.” In the meantime, visit the page and explore all the files made available there. It will be a good way to become familiar with our own roots in a small but influential Mennonite church in the Vistula River valley of central Poland.
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