Polish/Prussian Bullers: Jeziorka 3

Thus far (here and here) we have discussed the founding of Jeziorka in 1727 by thirteen Mennonite families who leased the land associated with the newly established village from Frau Hedwig von Steffens-Wybczyriski. The initial leases were for forty years and could be renewed, if the two sides agreed on terms.

We have also discovered that Bullers lived in Jeziorka nearly from its beginning and through most of the eighteenth century. Hans Buller (Przechovka church book 341) and his wife raised six children there in the 1730s and later. After that, George Buller (PCB 375) and his family lived there and were even listed in the 1772 Prussian land register and the 1776 census of Mennonites.

A portion of Jeziorki (Jeziorka) today, looking to the northwest.

One might wonder, however, why neither Hans 341 nor any of his sons is listed in either the 1772 or the 1776 lists. There is an explanation for that. Peter J. Klassen provides the context:

Tensions … arose with the local landlord, a Polish noble who demanded that Mennonite settlers on his lands perform the same scutage services provided by Polish settlers. For Mennonites, who had come as free persons and not as serfs, this seemed a novel and extraordinary request. A number … began to look for better opportunities elsewhere. In 1764, delegates from Jeziorka went to Berlin to explore settlement possibilities. Such a move would mean leaving Polish jurisdiction and moving to lands ruled by Frederick II. One of the king’s officials, Franz Balthasar Schonberg von Brenkenhoff, was charged with bringing new settlers to the Netze (Noted) River region, near Driesen in Brandenburg.… When he invited Mennonites to settle there, they accepted. In 1764, twenty-eight Mennonite families received settlement rights, with specified privileges. They were granted religious freedom, exemption from military service and the swearing of oaths, and each received forty morgen of land. Later they also received permission to establish and maintain their own schools. In the spring of 1765, thirty-five families arrived at their new home; the twenty-eight from Jeziorka had been joined by others from Przechowka and Schönsee. Several treks eventually brought some 166 Mennonites to the area. (Klassen 2009, 86–87)

Without going into too much detail, note that, near the end of the lease term the Jeziorka landlord decided to change the terms, presumably on the renewal of leases. Some Mennonites leasing the land did not want to accept those terms, so they explored other options. Eventually, at the invitation of Franz Balthasar Schonberg von Brenkenhoff, a representative of the Prussian king Frederick II, a group of families from the area moved roughly 120 miles southwest to the Netzebruch, a “boggy wetland along the lower course of the Netze/Noteć river” (Hege 1957). The red line in the map below shows the relation and distance between the Schwetz area and the Netzebruch.

As Klassen states, the thirty-five families moved in 1765, which would seem to have been two years before the end of the initial forty-year lease. Several explanations seem possible: the leases began in 1725 rather than 1727; the two parties agreed on some sort of early termination terms; the original lease holders sold the remaining years on the lease to other Mennonites, who would then be in a good position to renew the leases. Which of these explanations is correct (if any) is unknown.

The fact that George 375 appears on the 1772 and 1776 censuses proves that he was not one of those who left. The observation that neither Hans 341 nor none of his sons appears on the censuses might imply that they were among the group that left. However, that cannot be known, since at present we do not have evidence that they lived in the villages of the Netzebruch. Perhaps Hans 341’s family leased other land in the Schwetz/Przechovka area.

We do know that some Bullers made the trek southwest, since the 1767 lists of families from the two main villages in the Netze area give us their names. According to table 4 in Adalbert Goertz’s “From Jeziorka, Prussia to Russia in 1804” webpage (see here), Peter Buller and his wife plus their four children (two sons and two daughters) lived in the village of Brenckenhoffswalde, while George and his wife and their one son and one daughter lived in Frantzthal. We cannot know with absolute certainty who this Peter and this George were, but based on our survey of Georges from Przechovka in the previous post, I would put my money on brothers George 350 and Peter 351 in the scan from the church book below.

Their departure from the Schwetz area might explain why such scant information is included for them: the church book was composed at least twenty years later, and little more than their names and their father’s name was known. I say “little more” because the church book contains one more hint.

The standard entry in the church book lists a person’s name, parentage, date and location of birth, date of baptism, and information related to the person’s marriage: when, who, and where. The last column (the where) has entries for George and Peter.

If you are viewing this on a computer rather than a phone or tablet, you should be able to see that the top entry reads FrThal; the second is less clear, but it appears to begin with a B and end with Wald. In other words, George was married in FrThal = Frantzthal in the Netze area, and Peter his brother was married in B??Wald = Brenckenhoffswalde in the same locale.

These are the two Bullers who show up on Adalbert Goertz’s list of names, which reminds us once again that our larger, extended family constantly grew and spread even before our more immediate forebears settled in Molotschna.

This Jeziorka trilogy of posts probably does not relate to any of our direct ancestors (although we cannot say that for certain), but it does give us a window into the lives of our larger family through most of the eighteenth century. We will return to other Bullers in the Przechovka area in the near future, since there are many more of our family to identify and get to know. Before we do that, however, we have an important loose end to tie up. Stay tuned!

Sources

Hege, Christian. 1957. Netzebruch (Poland). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available here.

Klassen, Peter J. 2009. Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia. Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Zijpp, Nanne van der, and Richard D. Thiessen. 2014. Jeziorka (Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Available here.

Prussian censuses and the Przechovka church book 2

The last post first summarized all the Bullers listed in the three Prussian censuses (nine men with six different names), then began to survey the male Bullers listed in the Przechovka church book (forty-two of them with eight names).

In the process, we answered one of our initial questions: Are there Schwetz-area Bullers listed in the censuses who are not in the Przechovka church book? In fact, Adam Buller of Dworziska (just southwest of Deutsch Konopat, which is B in the map) is not listed in the book. We pick up there to explore further the relation between the censuses and the church book.

Since the three censuses were taken in 1772, 1776, and 1789, we want to identify Buller males who would have been adults (at least twenty years old) during that time span, to see how the church book compares with the names in the censuses. To ensure that we do not mistakenly exclude anyone, we will list male Bullers born between 1730 and 1770.

The year of birth is not provided in every instance, especially with the earlier individuals. All is not lost, however. If you recall, the six generations of Bullers extended from roughly 1670 to 1820, that is, 150 years, or 25 years per generation. Thus, if generation 1 began in 1680, generation 2 began in circa 1705 and generation 3 in approximately 1730. Generation 4 is solidly in our 1730–1770 range, but generation 5, which began roughly 1780, is too late.

This approach is not perfect, of course, but it is good enough, so we will include all the male Bullers from generations 3 and 4 unless someone’s birth date indicates that he should be excluded or included. Fifteen different Bullers meet these criteria:

Name	Village	PCB Number	Generation	Date of Birth
Andreas	———	345	4	———
Benjamin	Klein Konopat	352	4	———
David	———	346	4	———
George	———	342	3	———
George	Jeziorka	375	3	1747
George	———	350	4	———
Hans	———	341	3	———
Heinrich	Jeziorka	343	3	———
Heinrich	Ostrower Kämpe	362	3	1738
Heinrich	———	348	4	———
Heinrich	Przechkovka	378	4	1768
Jacob	Przechkovka	377	4	1760
Peter	Konopat	359	3	1731
Peter	———	351	4	———
Peter	———	386	5	1770

For ease of comparison, we repeat the census data from the earlier post:

Name	Village	1772	1776	1789
Adam	Dworziska	X
Benjamin	Deutsch Konopat			X
George	Jeziorka	X	X	X
Heinrich	Ostrower Kämpe	X		X
Heinrich	Ostrower Kämpe	X
Heinrich	Schwetzer Kämpe		X
Jacob	Przechovka			X
Peter	Deutsch Konopat	X	X	X
Peter	Deutsch Konopat		X	X

Finally we are ready to make observations about the relation between the two data sets.

1. Earlier we noted that one name from the censuses (Adam) does not appear in the church book. This led us to admit the possibility that there were Bullers in the Schwetz area who were not part of the Przechovka church. Whether our ancestors were members of that church is impossible to say at this time.

2. Conversely, we now see that three names in the PCB do not appear in any census: the brothers Andreas and David and their father Hans. Why? Even if they did not own land, they would have been counted in the 1776 census of Mennonites if they lived in the Schwetz area at that time. In fact, it was suggested earlier that these three moved with others to the Netzebruch in 1765 (see here). Since the PCB lists Frantzthal in the Netzebruch as the location where the two sons were married, it is almost certain that they were not in the Schwetz area for any of the censuses. The PCB and the censuses are in complete accord on this point.

3. Benjamin 352 of Klein Konopat is probably the same as Benjamin of Deutsch Konopat (another name for the same village) in the 1789 census of landowners. The PCB does not provide a date of birth, but it does list his year of baptism (1772) and marriage (1774), which would imply that he was born circa 1754 and thus would have been in his mid-40s at the time of the census. The correlation of these two seems highly probable.

4. We already identified George 375 as George of Jeziorka in the censuses (here), but two additional Georges require comment. Little is known about George 342, so all we can do is guess that he went to the Netzebruch with his brother Hans 341 or perhaps passed away before the 1776 or even 1772 census. The former seems the most likely option.

George 350 was married in Frantzthal, so he was also part of the Netzebruch group who no longer lived in the Schwetz area. Once again, the church book and the censuses are in agreement.

5. The PCB lists four Heinrichs, the censuses only three. Heinrich 343 of Jeziorka was the brother of George 342, so one wonders if he also was part of the move to Netzebruch. This explanation seems more likely than not. This leaves us with three Heinrichs in each table, but we should not be too quick to assume that these are all the same individuals.

Heinrich 362 of Ostrower Kämpe was born in 1738, so he would have been old enough to own land in 1772; the PCB also indicates that he died in 1791, so he was also alive for the 1789 census. There is little doubt that Heinrich 362 was one of the Ostrower Kämpe Heinrichs in the 1772 census.

Heinrich 348 was born in Jeziorka, but we do not know when; neither do we know where he lived or when he died. Interestingly, Heinrich was the third husband of Liscke Ratzlaff (81), who was born in 1746. They married in 1779 and had two daughters together, before Liscke died in 1785. One gets the impression that Heinrich was perhaps a “late bloomer.” If he was born approximately the same time as Liscke, then he did not marry until he was thirty-three, which was old in that social context. Might this be the Heinrich listed as living in Schwetzer Kämpe in 1776? Perhaps, but it is also plausible that this Heinrich does not appear in the censuses at all.

Heinrich 378 was born in 1768, so he cannot be one of the landowners listed for 1772, and he would not have had a household established by 1776. Once again the church book provides an explanation. This Heinrich was not married until 14 November 1790, so he was still living under his parents’ roof and thus would not have been a separate entry in the 1789 census.

To sum up the Heinrich discussion, the PCB and censuses can be harmonized for some of these men. Heinrich 362 certainly appears in the census, and Heinrich 378 certainly does not. Heinrich 343 probably went to the Netzebruch, but Heinrich 348 is an unknown.

Not to be overlooked is that at least one and probably two of the Heinrichs in the censuses are not in the church book. We know of only one Heinrich Buller from Ostrower Kämpe, not two, and we have no record of any Heinrich living in Schwetzer Kämpe. Like Adam Buller (see number 1 above), these Bullers in the censuses but not in the PCB demonstrate that not all Bullers in the Schwetz area were associated with the Przechovka church. This is a crucial perspective for us to keep in mind as we look for our own Schwetz-area ancestors.

6. Jacob 377, who was born in 1760, is an easy match for the Jacob of Przechovka listed in the 1789 census of landowners.

7. How do the three Peters in the church book relate to the two in the censuses? Peter 351, who was married in village of Brenckenhoffswalde, was part of the Netzebruch group. This leaves two Peters in the church book and two in the censuses, but once again we cannot assume a match.

Peter 359 was born in 1731, so he is a good candidate for the Deutsch Konopat Peter who appears in all three censuses.

Peter 386, however, was born in 1770, so he cannot be the other Deutsch Konopat Peter listed for the 1776 and 1789 censuses. This Peter was baptized in 1788, but no marriage is listed for him. The best explanation of this is that he still lived at home during the 1789 census and so was not included as a separate entry within it.

Once again, however, we encounter the reality that a Buller listed in the censuses (the second Peter in Deutsch Konopat) does not appear in the Przechovka church book.

Summary

This long and detailed (I hope not too boring) comparison of the male Bullers in the three Prussian censuses (1772, 1776, 1789) with the male Bullers reported as living at that time in the Przechovka church book leads us to two important conclusions.

First, the record contained in the church book is remarkably consistent with the secular records. Five of the fifteen Bullers listed in the church book can be identified with persons in one or more of the censuses. Another six Bullers who do not appear in the censuses almost certainly had moved to a new location by the time of the first census. Heinrich 378, whom we might have expected in the 1789 census, was still a year away from establishing his own household, so his absence from the censuses is perfectly explicable. At every point at which we are able to check, the church book appears to agree with the censuses and thus shows itself to be highly reliable.

Second, only five of the nine Bullers listed in the censuses appear in the Przechovka church book. Prior to conducing this exercise, I would never have guessed that only half or so of the Bullers in the Schwetz area were associated with that church. Without pretending to any kind of statistical precision, one might even say that there is only a 50–50 chance that our direct (pre-David) ancestor was a member of the Przechovka church. Perhaps this explains why thus far we have not been able to find a trace of David in the Przechovka church book.

If this is the case, then where might we turn next? A good first step will be to identify and learn about other Mennonite churches in the vicinity. There were several others close by, and they merit whatever attention we can give them. A second step might be to look for the records of Lutheran and Catholic churches in the Schwetz area. These churches frequently recorded data on anyone in the parish, not just members of the church. The one thing we do know is that the search continues.