Prussian censuses and the Przechovka church book 1

Over the last month or so we identified Bullers listed in three government censuses: the 1772 register of landowners in West Prussia (here); the 1776 census of Mennonites living in the same area (here); and the 1789 register of landowning Mennonites (here). As part of our discussions, we noticed that some Bullers (at least the same names) appeared in all three lists.

In one instance we identified a Buller listed in multiple censuses within another contemporary source: the Przechovka church book (PCB). Specifically, the George Buller who is listed as a landowner and resident in Jeziorka in all three censuses is PCB number 375 (here).

Picking up at this point, this post first correlates other Bullers listed in the censuses as a basis for then looking for them in the Przechovka church book. The goal of all this is not just to have fun (although exploration is always fun) but to produce concrete data that will allow us to answer several important questions:

• Are there Schwetz-area Bullers listed in the censuses who are not in the Przechovka church book?


• Are there Bullers in the Przechovka church book who do not appear in any of the censuses?

The point of asking these questions is to gain a better sense of whether we should expect to find our own ancestors listed in the censuses, the Przechovka church book, both, or perhaps neither. We begin with a table showing all the Schwetz-area Bullers listed in the censuses.

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

Of these nine different individuals, only two appear in all three censuses: George and Peter 1. On the other end of the spectrum, five of these Bullers appear in only one census: Adam, Benjamin, Heinrich 2, Heinrich 3 (see * note below), and Jacob. Comparing this list against the PCB entries should prove instructive.

Another angle to take is to look at how many first names are represented in these nine Bullers. The most common name is Heinrich (3), followed by Peter (2) and then one each of Adam, Benjamin, George, and Jacob. It will be interesting to see how this distribution compares to the first names in the PCB.

Now that we have the census information all neatly listed and categorized, we are ready to delve into the names, years, and places contained within the Przechovka church book. We first learned of this book here, and we have had occasion to refer to it a number of times.

By way of recap, the PCB lists the families who were associated with the church to as far back as those compiling the book in the late 1700s were able to go. The most important sections of the book for our analysis are the opening list of each family all together and the later parts that list in chronological order (i.e., not by family) children born into the Przechovka church.

The scan of the page to the right is a part of the primary listing of Bullers. Later Buller entries are generally similar, although some of the latest entries offer the barest of information.

In all, the church book lists 96 different Bullers: 57 in the primary section and 39 more scattered through the chronological lists. These 96 individuals stretch across six generations, from *** (whom we know to be George; see here) through his great-great-great-grandchildren. In terms of dates, *** George was probably born 1670–1680, and the last Buller child listed in the PDB was born in 1818 (shortly before the entire church moved to Molotschna colony), so our six generations covered a time span of nearly 150 years.

Of the 96 Bullers, 54 were female and 42 male. Of course, the three censuses list only the male heads of households, so we can focus on the 42 male Bullers in the PCB for this inquiry.

Andreas	2
Benjamin	2
David	6
George	5
Hans	2
Heinrich	8
Jacob	8
Peter	9

Several things stand out about this list. First, seeing only eight names for forty-two individuals shows the strength of the tradition of naming children after near and distant ancestors. We see somewhat the same phenomenon later, with Peter D, father of Peter P, father of Peter E.

Second, already we have an answer to one of our questions: Are there Schwetz-area Bullers listed in the censuses who are not in the Przechovka church book? The answer is most certainly yes, since the Adam listed in the village of Dworziska in the 1772 register of landowners is nowhere to be found in the church book.

What does this mean in the broader scheme of things? At the least, it hints that not all Bullers living in the Schwetz area were members of the Przechovka church. This, in turn, raises another question: Were the members of the David Buller family (his parents and siblings, if any) associated with that church? It is too soon even to guess at the answer to those questions, but it is important that we keep them in mind.

The following post will go a little deeper into the list of forty-two male Bullers in the Przechovka church book to see if we can draw other insights by comparing them with the three governmental censuses. It is unclear where this might lead, but if nothing else it will help us clarify what we know (and what we don’t know) as well as where we might look next as we seek to find some trace of David Buller (father of Peter D, father of Peter P, father of Chris) in the Schwetz area along the Vistula River in early nineteenth-century West Prussia.


* Note: An earlier post (here) suggested that Heinrich of Ostrower Kämpe was the same as Heinrich of Schwetzer Kämpe. That now seems mistaken, as the two locations are treated distinctly in other sources. It is most likely that we are dealing with two different Heinrich Bullers in these villages.