Thinking about George

Although it is important to limit our conclusions to what we know to be true, that is, to what we can document from reliable sources, it is no crime to exercise imagination when looking at the questions raised by those same sources, to create and consider mental scenarios that cohere with what we know and fill in the blanks of what we do not know.

So it is that this post will engage in some imaginative thinking about George to see where this might lead in understanding our own family history. We start from the altogether likely premise that we are somehow descended from George. That assumption may be incorrect, but in good lawyerly fashion we will stipulate it for the time being to see where it leads.

1. We know from the landowner lists that George lived in Schönsee in 1695 (here). We also know that he lived in Schönsee when he signed a lease in 1700 (here).

2. We know that sometime after 1700 but before 1705 George moved from Schönsee (here). We also know that George eventually settled in Przechowka and lived with Dina Thoms in the schoolhouse.

3. We are told in the Przechowka church book that Dina’s husband (the church book does not know his name, but we know it to be George) lived to a “very old age” (here).

4. We learn from the Derks–Berents Mennonite lists that George was still alive in 1714–1716 but died before 1719.

5. Taking all this information together, we can reasonably conclude that George, who died at a very old age in 1716–1719, was probably born around 1650 (which would have made him seventy at his death).

6. If George was born around 1650, he would have been around forty-five when he was recorded as a Schönsee landowner in 1695.

7. If George began having children in his early twenties, which was typical for that day, then some of his children were already of adult age in 1695.

8. The Przechowka church book lists for George the names of eight children: Hans, George, Liscke, Peter, Sarcke, Efcke, Maricke, and Trudcke. It is not certain that all these were the children of George and Dina, since the book also states that “these” seven children were of George and Dina. The most likely explanation of this odd phrasing is that Hans had a different mother, presumably George’s first wife—or at least the wife before Dina.

9. If Hans had a mother other than Dina, then one wonders if there were other surviving children of that earlier marriage. The possibility seems altogether likely, since George presumably married and began raising a family by 1675, when he was about twenty-five.

10. If there were other children of an earlier marriage, and if they were of adult age, in all likelihood they remained in Schönsee when George and Dina moved to Przechowka. Hans went along, perhaps, because he was not yet an adult.

11. If George had children who did not move to Przechowka when he and Dina did, these children are understandably absent from the church book—which, after all, did not even know George’s name.

One cannot help but wonder, in light of what we know and what seems reasonable as outlined above, if George Buller had other (male) children than the three sons listed in the Przechowka church book. Is this a reasonable possibility that coheres with what we know?

The reason why this is important to our family should be obvious: if George had more sons than the three listed in the Przechowka church book and Buller chart (below), then there are other Buller lines descended from George but not recorded in the Przechowka church book. There are descendants of George who were not directly connected to the Przechowka church.

It has been striking during our explorations of Bullers of times past how clearly the lines between some families can be drawn directly back to George and one of his three known sons. But it is also arresting that there are other Buller families—ours among them—who seem to arise out of the mist, who seemingly are descended from George but who cannot be linked to him in any direct way. How do we account for these stray Buller families?

One hypothesis (and it is no more than that) is that George’s oldest children were born in, and then stayed in, Schönsee, that George had other sons whose descendants were Mennonite but not members of the Przechowka church. There are stray Bullers—that much we know. How we best explain their origin is the question remaining to be answered. We will return to this question in various ways from time to time. Perhaps we are not descended from George at all but rather from his half-witted brother (that’s a joke). For now, we have a hypothesis to consider and to adjust and revise as we learn more and fill in more blanks with any and all Bullers whom we are fortunate enough to encounter in the historical record.