An intriguing find

Even though most of our exploration involves scouring archives and records, every now and then a material artifact, some physical object, pops up and begs to be noticed. This happened last night with the Catalogue of Monuments of Dutch Colonization in Poland (here). While casually reading the descriptions of several villages near Deutsch-Wymysle and then examining the drawings and photographs that illustrate the text, a headstone from the Sady cemetery caught my eye. Can you see what is striking about this object?

Most of the text is clear:

Here lies (rests) so-and-so
Born 22 (?) July 1865
Died 10 October 1932
May his remains (ashes) rest in peace

The important part of all this is the identity of the so-and-so: Jacob Zilke. The last name is strikingly similar to that of Helena Zielke, wife of David Buller. In fact, given the variability of spellings at the time, one might reasonably think that the names are not merely similar but the same.

To be clear, there is no reason to think that Jacob Zilke, born in 1865, was a direct relative of Helena, who died a decade before Jacob was born. However, given the fact that Sady was for a time home to a Mennonite population (it is unclear for how long), it is conceivable that Jacob Zilke had some sort of family connection to the Mennonite Helena Zielke who is one of our ancestors. At the very least, it is worth noticing and tucking away in case we encounter more information about the Zielke family.