Büllers, Bollers, Boelers, and Buijlers

Several posts ago we noted several different spellings of surnames that are often linked to our own, namely, Boeler, Boller, and Buijler (or Buijlert). We are not the only ones to notice these variations. In fact, the Buller listing in Gustav Reimer’s Die Familiennamen der westpreußischen Mennoniten list these variants (minus Buijlert with a -t) and one other.

Buhler and Buller in Reimer 1963, 105.

The first section of Reimer’s listing provides a shorthand way of indicating where each spelling of the surname is attested. For example, the spelling Büller appears in SC, which stands for Special Consignation, a reference to the 1776 census of Mennonites. Boller appears in Hu 1 and Boeler in Hu 1 and 2; the Hu abbreviation stands for Hendrik Berents Hulshoff, whose name lists we surveyed in earlier posts (here and here).

A second section (after the —) identifies the church or town/village in which various sources locate the family name. For example, the first entry, Afl = Gemeinden der Alten Flaminger, points to the Old Flemish churches (in the Schwetz area) and identifies the source of that information, the Hendrik Berents Hulshoff lists. Other places listed are Ssee fl. = the Flemish congregation at Schönsee (Wbe = Wiebe 1939 as the source), Jez = Jeziorka (Wbe), Kaz = Deutsch-Kazun (Wbe), and MGr = Montau-Gruppe. Why repeat all this minutiae? If Reimer is correct, these are the places where we should look for the earliest Bullers who may be our ancestors.

Reimer ends with a comment on the relation of the Buller names that he lists: “Die namen sind nicht klar zu trennen, möglicherweise ausverscheidenen Wurzeln herzuleiten” = “The names are not clearly distinguished [and] may derive from different roots.” This meaning of the first clause is not entirely clear, but the primary point is contained in the second clause: the different variations listed for Buller may derive from different roots. Stated differently, there may be no actual link between Boelers and Buijlers, just as we suspected earlier.

We have not even touched on the variant spellings listed for Buhler above the Buller entry, which variations include, oddly enough, Buller. More on that in a subsequent post. We will also explore further what recent DNA analysis can contribute to the discussion. Little by little, perhaps we can continue to narrow our search and eventually locate the place from which our ancestors began their journey from Poland to Russian and on to the U.S.

Sources

Reimer, Gustav. 1963. Die Familiennamen der westpreußischen Mennoniten. Schriftenreihe des Mennonitischen Geschichtsvereins 3. Weierhof: Mennonitischen Geschichtsverein.

Wiebe, Herbert. 1939. Mennonitische Familiennamen in den Weichselniederungen von Graudenz bis Thorn. Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter 4:34–39.

———. 1952. Das Siedlungswerk niederländischer Mennoniten im Weichseltal zwischen Fordon und Weissenberg bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts. Wissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Geschichte und Landeskunde Ost-Mitteleuropas 3. Marburg a.d. Lahn: Johann Gottfried Herder-Institut.