We continue our series on the 1819 emigration of Przechovka-area Mennonites to Molotschna, testing the hypothesis that the 1820 group under Elder Peter Wedel was neither the first nor the largest group of Przechovka church members to emigrate to Molotschna. We pick up with the fifth family listed in Rempel (families 5–8 are all listed on Rempel 2007, 136).
5. Heinrich Ratzlaff is listed as a Mennonite from Deutsch-Konopath with a wife, a son, and a daughter. His traveling party also contained a servant named Johann Ratzlaff. The latter detail illustrates well that visas could cover more than simply the nuclear family.
The PCB lists fifteen men named Heinrich Ratzlaff, but one has his name crossed out as an error, and ten others were either deceased or too young to have a family. Of the four remaining candidates (141, 155, 164, 1147), Heinrich Jacob Ratzlaff (PCB 141/GM 47821) seems the most likely. Born in 1767, in 1819 he and his wife Efcke Köhn had a son Peter and a daughter Maria, just as the visa record reports.
We find this family at Franztal 25 in the 1835 Molotschna census. This corresponds to Rempel’s cross-referenced listing of this family’s settlement report:
Heinrich Ratzlaff (Геинрих Рацлав), whose family consists of 3 males and 2 females. On their move to Russia they did not have cash. They did not bring with them horses, and possessions. They arrived in Russia in 1819 and settled in Franztal, Molotschna. (Rempel 2007, 158)
Interestingly, the census states that Heinrich’s younger (by twelve years) brother Johann lived with them. This is presumably the same Johann Ratzlaff identified as a servant on the visa. If so, then Johann was a forty-year-old servant in his brother’s house, which does not fit the normal pattern as I understand it.
At any rate, we can confidently conclude that this emigrant family was from the Przechovka church and settled in the Molotschna village of Franztal.
6. Anna Pankratz is identified as a widow Mennonite from Przechovka who was accompanied by her daughter and a driver, or coachman, named Peter Pankratz. Identifying Anna Pankratz is a bit more complex than usual because we cannot be certain whether Pankratz was her maiden or married name. The latter seems the most likely, so we will begin with that assumption.
A GRANDMA search for couples in which the husband’s last name is Pankratz and the wife’s first name is Anna returns sixty-six possibilities. However, only six of these fit the proper time frame. Of these, one particular candidate stands out.
Heinrich Jacob Pankratz (PCB 710/GM 43068) married Anna Pankratz in 1779, but she passed away in 1786, after bearing him one son: Peter. The following year Heinrich married another woman named Anna, Anna Ratzlaff, and she bore him five children, including a daughter in 1804, nearly a decade after the other children were born. Heinrich died in 1809, leaving Anna a widow the rest of her life (as far as we know). She and her daughter were all that remained of the nuclear family, the other children being either married or deceased.
Although we cannot be certain of this identification, Heinrich’s second wife, Anna Ratzlaff (PCB 140/GM 43100), fits the visa description. Further, her brother Heinrich (see number 6 above) was also a member of this emigration group, which only increases the likelihood of our identification. It is tempting to suggest that Heinrich Pankratz’s son Peter by his first wife served as her driver. Peter’s own wife had passed away by that time, but he apparently had an eight-year-old daughter. Because we do not know what happened to Peter or his daughter, it is best not to speculate too much.
In the end, it seems far more likely than not that the Anna Pankratz listed was the widow of Heinrich Jacob Pankratz. That the family belonged to the Przechovka church is even more likely, given the strong association of the Pankratz family with that congregation.
7. Jacob Becker was a Mennonite from Przechovka with a wife, three sons, and two daughters. Of the ten Jacob Beckers listed in the Przechovka church book, one stands out as a match: PCB 334/GM 32008.
Jacob Hans Becker was born in 1778, married Anna Schmidt (PCB 1244/GM 32011) in 1804, and had four sons and three daughters with her. As frequently happened at that time, two children died, leaving the couple with three sons and two daughters in 1819. Thus we can identify Jacob Hans Becker as the person listed on the 1819 visa (GRANDMA agrees).
Unfortunately, Jacob passed away later that year, on 17 December, apparently in Molotschna. Jacob’s widow then married another member of this traveling party, Tobias Schmidt (number 28), and they are found together at Franztal 8 in the 1835 Molotschna census. We will take up Tobias in turn, but for now we can confidently conclude that Jacob and Anna Schmidt Becker were both members of the Przechovka church who emigrated to Molotschna in 1819.
8. Adam Ratzlaff is listed as a Mennonite from Deutsch-Konopath whose family included a wife, three sons, and three daughters. The Przechovka church book lists eight Adam Ratzlaffs, five of whom were certainly or probably deceased and one who was still an adolescent in 1819. Of the two remaining candidates, one (PCB 146) does not fit at all.
The other is a possible match, being questionable only because the numbers of children differ. Adam Adam Ratzlaff (PCB 192/GM 4327) and his wife Lehncke Schmidt (PCB 1214/GM 4328) had twelve children, but four were reportedly born after the move to Molotschna. Of the eight other children (three boys, five girls), years of birth are known for only four.
The visa above reports three sons and three daughters; the number of sons is correct, but there are two extra daughters. It may well be that two of the couple’s daughters died before 1819; if so, then the information in the visa would match this family’s history. The likelihood of this explanation is bolstered by the fact that this same family appears in the 1835 census with all the children except two daughters listed. Thus it seems highly likely that we have identified the correct family.
Where in the census does Adam Adam Ratzlaff and his family appear? Like others in this group, in Franztal, specifically at Wirtschaft 19. Once again we have a family from the Przechovka church who emigrated to Molotschna in 1819 and settled in Franztal. The larger hypothesis we are testing remains plausible.
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| Name | PCB/GM | Comment | |
| 1 | Peter Becker | 321/32099 | settled at Franztal 17 |
| 2 | Jacob Wedel | 276/106688 | based on association with Glugowko |
| 3 | Heinrich Unrau | 1149/86839 | settled at Alexanderwohl 14 |
| 4 | Peter Wedel | ?? | perhaps PCB 262/GM 81631, a Przechovka elder |
| 5 | Heinrich Ratzlaff | 141/47821 | settled at Franztal 25 |
| 6 | Anna Pankratz | 140/43100 | widow and sister to number 5 above |
| 7 | Jacob Becker | 334/32008 | Jacob passed away; his widow married Tobias Schmidt (number 28) |
| 8 | Adam Ratzlaff | 192/4327 | settled at Franztal 19 |
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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Excursus on Adam Ratzlaff
Rempel (2007, 136) cross-references the entry for Adam Ratzlaff to pages 152 and 158 in his work. There one finds parallel or complementary settlement reports:
Adam Ratzlaff (Адам Рацлав), whose family consists of 5 males and 4 females. Settled in Russia in the year 1819. They had no cash. They brought possessions valued at 30 rubles 20 kopeks, 1 wagon, 2 horses and no cattle; wagon, horse or head of cattle cost 50 rubles. The local administration suggested providing financial aid for the purchase of 2 head of cattle at a sum of 110 rubles, and also for building a house and establishing the household, at a sum of 589 rubles.
Adam Ratzlaff (Адам Рацлав), whose family consists of 5 males and 4 females. On their move to Russia they brought 60 rubles cash, horses valued at 60 rubles and possessions valued at 50 rubles. They arrived in Russia in 1819 and settled in Franztal, Molotschna.
Leaving aside the discrepancy on the amount of cash the family had in hand and the value of their possessions, this seems to be the same family, and it seems to be the family we have identified as Adam Ratzlaff above. How, then, did the family have five males (father + four sons) upon arrival but four males on the visa?
The key appears to be with the age of son Heinrich, whom GRANDMA (4330) has being born on 28 February 1820. No source for that date is listed, so we should regard it as open to question. Further, the 1835 Molotschna census lists his age as seventeen and his brother Peter’s age as fourteen. This implies that Heinrich was born in 1818 (possibly 1819) and thus emigrated to Molotschna with the rest of the family.
It seems certain that the visa and settlement reports are referring to the same family, and that family was Adam Adam Ratzlaff of Deutsch-Konopath. One wonders how long the process of securing the proper documents took: first applying for and receiving a passport from the Prussian government, then receiving a travel visa from the Russian government. Is it possible that Heinrich was born after the application was first made but before the family actually emigrated? Or is this simply an instance of a lack of precision on one or another government record, as we observe, for example, with the discrepancies between the two settlement reports?
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