The Przechovka Emigration series began with an observation and several questions. The observation concerned the impression given by the 1848 Alexanderwohl Gemeindebericht (community report) when it claims the following about the community’s origins:
this local community, which had existed as a church community in Prussia for over two hundred years, emigrated to Russia under the leadership of its church elder, Peter Wedel.
This statement is most frequently understood to be claiming that the entire Przechovka church, which had existed in West Prussia/Poland for two centuries, moved from Molotschna under Peter Wedel’s leadership and there founded the village Alexanderwohl.
This consensus understanding of the relation between the Przechovka church and Alexanderwohl, we noted further, might be called into question by the existence of a large number of Mennonites from the Przechovka area who apparently immigrated to Russia in 1819. This reality prompted a number of questions that the following posts sought to answer: Who were these Mennonites? When did they journey to Molotschna? Which of them, if any, belonged to the Przechovka church? Where did these emigrants settle once they arrived in Molotschna?
Each investigation started by seeking to identify who the named Mennonite, the head of household, was and who else was a part of his or her family and/or traveling group. This part of the investigation sought to answer the question of who these Mennonites were. Having completed our investigation of each family in the 1819 group, we are ready to take a step back and make some broader, more general observations.
This consensus understanding of the relation between the Przechovka church and Alexanderwohl, we noted further, might be called into question by the existence of a large number of Mennonites from the Przechovka area who apparently immigrated to Russia in 1819. This reality prompted a number of questions that the following posts sought to answer: Who were these Mennonites? When did they journey to Molotschna? Which of them, if any, belonged to the Przechovka church? Where did these emigrants settle once they arrived in Molotschna?
Each investigation started by seeking to identify who the named Mennonite, the head of household, was and who else was a part of his or her family and/or traveling group. This part of the investigation sought to answer the question of who these Mennonites were. Having completed our investigation of each family in the 1819 group, we are ready to take a step back and make some broader, more general observations.
1. As far as we can tell, thirty-one of the thirty-two families emigrated in 1819; only Martin Cornelsen (11) delayed a year and accompanied the 1820 party. Thus, our initial impression that these families by and large emigrated from the Przechovka area a year before the more famous group of 1820 was confirmed.
However, we also learned that things may not be as tidy as we first thought. At least seven of the thirty-one families who left Przechovka in 1819 stopped in Volhynia later that year. Four of these families apparently settled in Volhynia and did not travel on to Molotschna at all; three wintered in Volhynia and then journeyed on to Molotschna (eventually settling in Alexanderwohl) the following year.
Already we notice a difference between the 1819 and the 1820 emigrants. The 1848 Alexanderwohl community report clearly portrays the 1820 emigrants as a single group of travelers all starting at the same time, traveling together, and arriving at the same time at the same place. The 1819 group, to use the term loosely, lacked that close association: some traveled only to Volhynia, others to Volhynia and then to Molotschna, and still others all the way through to Molotschna. Further, we have no reason to think that all the 1819 emigrants traveled together; they may well have traveled in a number of small groups of families at slightly different times and paces.
However, we also learned that things may not be as tidy as we first thought. At least seven of the thirty-one families who left Przechovka in 1819 stopped in Volhynia later that year. Four of these families apparently settled in Volhynia and did not travel on to Molotschna at all; three wintered in Volhynia and then journeyed on to Molotschna (eventually settling in Alexanderwohl) the following year.
Already we notice a difference between the 1819 and the 1820 emigrants. The 1848 Alexanderwohl community report clearly portrays the 1820 emigrants as a single group of travelers all starting at the same time, traveling together, and arriving at the same time at the same place. The 1819 group, to use the term loosely, lacked that close association: some traveled only to Volhynia, others to Volhynia and then to Molotschna, and still others all the way through to Molotschna. Further, we have no reason to think that all the 1819 emigrants traveled together; they may well have traveled in a number of small groups of families at slightly different times and paces.
2. At least twenty of the thirty-two named Mennonites can be positively identified in the Przechovka church book. Several others are almost certainly listed within the book; we simply do not know which entry is theirs, given the high incidence of repeated names. At least one, possibly two, heads of household have children in the church book, which indicates their belonging to the congregation, even if the head of household was originally from a different church (e.g., Peter Block originally from Montau).
The surnames of the 1819 group are also decidedly Przechovka names: Ratzlaff (8), Schmidt (5), Becker (4), Unrau (3), Wedel (3), Pankratz (2), and Frey, Köhn, Kornelsen, Nachtigal, and Richert (all 1). Only Abrahams and Block are not characteristic Przechovka names, but they also appear in the church book. Based on both streams of evidence, then, we can safely conclude that all thirty-two families were part of, or at least associated with, the Przechovka church.
I do not know how many families were part of the Przechovka church at this time, but it seems likely that the loss of thirty-two families was rather significant. Because each visa lists the number of people in each family (or traveling party), we are able to quantify the loss to the church further: 158 people. The next question we should ask (we will answer it later) is how many people in the church remained after the 1819 group left. Certainly it seems less than accurate to refer to the members of the 1820 group as the “church community,” when in fact they were only those who remained after a sizable portion of the church community had already left. (Of course, we know of Przechovka church members who left even before 1819—including our own ancestor Benjamin Buller!)
3. Of the thirty-one families who emigrated in 1819, we know with a fair degree of confidence where twenty-one of them settled. Leaving to the side the four families who appear to have remained in Volhynia, two locations account for all twenty-one:
The surnames of the 1819 group are also decidedly Przechovka names: Ratzlaff (8), Schmidt (5), Becker (4), Unrau (3), Wedel (3), Pankratz (2), and Frey, Köhn, Kornelsen, Nachtigal, and Richert (all 1). Only Abrahams and Block are not characteristic Przechovka names, but they also appear in the church book. Based on both streams of evidence, then, we can safely conclude that all thirty-two families were part of, or at least associated with, the Przechovka church.
I do not know how many families were part of the Przechovka church at this time, but it seems likely that the loss of thirty-two families was rather significant. Because each visa lists the number of people in each family (or traveling party), we are able to quantify the loss to the church further: 158 people. The next question we should ask (we will answer it later) is how many people in the church remained after the 1819 group left. Certainly it seems less than accurate to refer to the members of the 1820 group as the “church community,” when in fact they were only those who remained after a sizable portion of the church community had already left. (Of course, we know of Przechovka church members who left even before 1819—including our own ancestor Benjamin Buller!)
3. Of the thirty-one families who emigrated in 1819, we know with a fair degree of confidence where twenty-one of them settled. Leaving to the side the four families who appear to have remained in Volhynia, two locations account for all twenty-one:
| Alexanderwohl: | four families |
| Franztal: | seventeen families |
We should note further that three of the four families who settled in Alexanderwohl spent the winter in Volhynia, which raises the possibility (nothing more) that they proceeded to their final destination as part of the 1820 group. This observation casts into sharper relief an obvious fact: Franztal was the destination of choice for most families in the 1819 group, and it was the first Molotschna village to experience a strong Przechovka influx.
For descendants of the Przechovka church, Franztal should be of as much interest as Alexanderwohl, the village that held the church book and claimed the church mantle. Questions that arise and beg for answers are many: When was the village founded? Where was it located? Who else, in addition to Przechovka members, lived there? Where did Franztal Mennonites worship? What was their relation with the Alexanderwohl church? Those questions and others that come to mind will keep us occupied for the immediate future. For now it is enough to know that the 1820 was not the first large body of Przechovka church members to leave West Prussia and settle in Molotschna. Rather, they were the last body to make the move after so many others had gone before.
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