Now that we have cleared up the confusion of which Jacob Buller lived at Alexanderwohl 9 and was married to Elisabeth Ratzlaff, with whom he raised a daughter and four sons (see here), we are ready to offer the recently noticed information that prompted the exploration of the previous post.
When earlier we identified Jacob Peter Buller as the original founder of Alexanderwohl 9 (here), we could not say a great deal about him, since we did not find him listed in the records of Peter Rempel’s Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828. That was an oversight created largely by GRANDMA’s incomplete information for this individual. Now that we have a better sense of his family situation in 1820, we can confirm that the following settlement report probably relates to him.
Jakob Buler (Якоб Булер), whose family consists of 2 males and 3 females. Settled in Russia in the year 1820. They had with them 2520 rubles cash, possessions valued at 208 rubles, 2 wagon, 3 horses and 2 head of cattle; wagon, horse or head of cattle cost 350 rubles. The local administration suggested providing financial aid for building a house and establishing the household at a sum of 339 rubles. (Rempel 2007, 175)
The spelling of our surname with a single l is interesting but of no great significance. The form of the record is what we have seen before, listing first the number of family members, then an accounting of the cash and worth of the goods brought into Russia, and concluding with the statement that Jacob and family received a government loan to build a house and establish a household, which is a certain sign that Jacob was a landowner, no doubt at Alexanderwohl 9. All that remains is to identify, if possible, the two males and three females in the family at that time.
Given what we learned in the last post, particularly the birth of their oldest son Benjamin in 1815, we know beyond doubt that Jacob and Elisabeth Ratzlaff married well before emigrating to Molotschna. Thus, husband and wife account for one male and one female, leaving one son and two daughters to fill out the gender totals of the settlement record.
As just mentioned, Benjamin was born in 1815, so he was presumably the other male. Daughter Eva was born in 1818, so she was one of the three females. However, Jacob and Elisabeth had no other daughters, so how can we account for the third female in the settlement report?
We must remember that Elisabeth Ratzlaff was not Jacob’s first wife, nor were his children with her his first family. Jacob also had children with his first wife, the last two of whom are of interest for our purposes here. We have already encountered Jacob’s last son by his first wife: Jacob Jacob Buller, who emigrated to Molotschna in 1819, lived briefly in Franztal, then settled Alexanderwohl 15 in 1822 (see here). Clearly, Jacob Jacob was not part of his father’s settlement in 1820.
Jacob’s youngest child by his first wife was his daughter Sara, who was born in 1803; she would have been only seventeen years of age in 1820, which makes her a highly likely candidate for being the third female in the settlement report. According to GRANDMA, Sara married Jacob Pankratz of Alexanderwohl around 1825, which explains further why she is not listed in the 1835 census as living at her parents’ house.
In short, all the pieces fit together with what we now know the Jacob Peter Buller family, so we can conclude that the settlement record above is, as suspected, for this family.
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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