Buller Time continues to hear from members of our broader family, which is a wonderful way to draw modern connections with our ancient roots. A while back, for example (quite a while, actually, since I lost the email for longer than I care to admit), Buller Time was contacted by a descendant of Heinrich Jacob and Sara Buller Buller who now lives in North Carolina. In addition to telling a little bit about that branch of the family, he shared a picture of Henry and Sara in front of their shack on the “Buller 40” about a mile west of Kremlin, Oklahoma.
Of course, whenever we are contacted by another Buller, we immediately wish to identify and learn more about the family, then see if Buller Time has previously encountered anyone from that branch. In this case, thanks to the family information provided, it is easy to identify both Henry and Sara (they were both Bullers but not closely related).
Heinrich Jacob Buller (GM 5593) was born 9 December 1850 in Alexanderwohl. Sara (GM 29729) was born 25 November 1845 in the same Molotschna village, the one that has been at the center of our attention most of this year. They married in 1872 and were part of the 1874 migration of nearly the entire Alexanderwohl church to the U.S. Like most in that party, they first settled near Goessel, Kansas. Later they were among those Mennonites who moved south to Oklahoma, where both lived out their days, with Sara passing away 25 February 1928 and Henry following nearly a decade later, on 19 January 1937.
What is of greatest interest (to me, at least) is where they fit within the Alexanderwohl context and, more broadly, the larger Buller family descended from George and Dina Thoms Buller. As mentioned above, Heinrich’s father was named Jacob; in fact, he was named Jacob Jacob Buller (GM 5587), whom we have already identified as one of the original Alexanderwohl settlers (here).
The intriguing thing about Jacob Jacob Buller is that, according to the 1835 Molotschna census, he emigrated in 1819 and first settled in Franztal in the home of Peter Richert. (He thus fits comfortably in our Przechovka Emigration series.) Oddly, however, neither Jacob nor Peter is listed among our 1819 emigrants from Przechovka. We have no reason to doubt the date on the census, so we must conclude that either the records on which Peter Rempel relied (i.e., the scans that we now possess) are missing some visas or that Jacob Buller, Peter Richert, and others emigrated to New Russia without authorization to do so. Either explanation is plausible.
Although that question must remain unanswered, we do know that Jacob Jacob was the father of the man pictured above: Heinrich (Henry) Buller. We can also trace that family line back to George and Dina. A revised version of the Buller chart first sketched by Glenn Penner shows that family’s lineage as well as our relationship to it.
George and Dina appear at the top, of course, followed by their three sons: Hans, George, and Peter. The red names trace our family line from Hans to Heinrich to Benjamin to Benjamin to David to Peter D and so on. The teal boxes trace the family line of Henry Buller pictured above: from George and Dina to their son George to Peter to Jacob to Jacob Jacob to Henry. The chart makes it clear that our two lines are related, but only at the point of origin, with George and Dina.
The information uncovered in this post may be run-of-the-mill, but it is important nonetheless, in that it fills in a few more details of our broader family story. The man pictured above (we will return to Sara in a subsequent post) was the son of an 1819 emigrant who later became an original founder of Alexanderwohl. Given his 1850 birth year, Henry Buller may well have known our own ancestor Peter D Buller, who was born in 1845 (the same year as Henry’s wife Sara) and was almost certainly baptized in the Alexanderwohl church.
Whether or not Peter D and Henry and Sara were acquainted, our family and theirs now knows a little more about each other—and about the larger Buller family of which we all form a part.
Although that question must remain unanswered, we do know that Jacob Jacob was the father of the man pictured above: Heinrich (Henry) Buller. We can also trace that family line back to George and Dina. A revised version of the Buller chart first sketched by Glenn Penner shows that family’s lineage as well as our relationship to it.
George and Dina appear at the top, of course, followed by their three sons: Hans, George, and Peter. The red names trace our family line from Hans to Heinrich to Benjamin to Benjamin to David to Peter D and so on. The teal boxes trace the family line of Henry Buller pictured above: from George and Dina to their son George to Peter to Jacob to Jacob Jacob to Henry. The chart makes it clear that our two lines are related, but only at the point of origin, with George and Dina.
The information uncovered in this post may be run-of-the-mill, but it is important nonetheless, in that it fills in a few more details of our broader family story. The man pictured above (we will return to Sara in a subsequent post) was the son of an 1819 emigrant who later became an original founder of Alexanderwohl. Given his 1850 birth year, Henry Buller may well have known our own ancestor Peter D Buller, who was born in 1845 (the same year as Henry’s wife Sara) and was almost certainly baptized in the Alexanderwohl church.
Whether or not Peter D and Henry and Sara were acquainted, our family and theirs now knows a little more about each other—and about the larger Buller family of which we all form a part.
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