Benjamin Buller 12

As we discovered in the last post, the best way to coordinate the data found in the 1840 Waldheim list of settlers (which lists a son Benjamin Benjamin Buller and a father Benjamin Benjamin Buller) and the 1820 Rovno register (which lists a father Benjamin and one son named Dominik and another son named David—our ancestor) is to understand that the Russian scribe wrote “Dominik” (a decidedly non-Mennonite name) in place of the actual name, “Benjamin.” That this appears to have happened several times on this single census makes the explanation plausible.

Having identified Dominik on the 1820 register as David Buller’s brother Benjamin, we are ready to fill in a few gaps in our understanding of David’s early life in Waldheim. But first let us diagram the family relationships clearly, so there is no confusion about the various Benjamin Bullers. As shown below (moving oldest to youngest), Benjamin I was the father of Benjamin II, and Benjamin II had two sons known to us at this point: the brothers Benjamin III and David.

	Benjamin Buller I (1760s?)
	|
	Benjamin Buller II (ca. 1789–????)
	______|______
Benjamin Buller III (ca. 1816–????)		David Buller (1818–1904)

1. From the evidence of the Rovno register (see below), we know that Benjamin III was two years older than his brother (our ancestor) David. Thus, since we have determined that David was born in 1818 (here), we can postulate that Benjamin III was born in 1816 or thereabouts. Based on that date of birth, we can estimate that he was twenty-four years of age when he was granted a land allotment in Waldheim, a reasonable age to be establishing his own household and family. In my view, the fact that he was granted a Wirtschaft implies that he was already or was about to be married. At present we can say nothing more about him.

2. Recognizing that David’s father and older brother received their own Wirtschaften may help us understand why David apparently did not. Two thoughts come to mind. First, twenty-two-year-old David may have still been single and living under his parents’ roof. I may be mistaken, but this may well have excluded him as a potential candidate. Second, given the reality that two family members had already been granted land, if he was eligible for a grant, David may have been lower on the list, so that all the Wirtschaften had been assigned (there were only forty total available) before his name rose to the top of the list.

Whatever the explanation, we at least know that David was initially landless in Waldheim not due to a late arrival in the village (i.e., after all the Wirtschaften had been assigned) but more likely because priority went to his father and his older brother, who did become landowners in Waldheim.

3. One final thread we may trace from this is the likelihood that David Buller and Helena Zielke did not marry until sometime after 1840. Thus far we have no indication when the Zielkes showed up in Waldheim, so it could have been a few years later. However, we know that ancestor Peter D Buller was born in 1845, and we do not think he was the oldest child, so it was probably in the 1840–1842 range that David and Helena married. We will keep that question in mind as we sift through whatever new material we encounter.

At the least we can conclude from recent posts that ultimately, in terms of our ancestor Benjamin II, we are descended from not a bunch of landless hicks from Molotschna. As a matter of fact, our ancestors were a bunch of landed hicks from Molotschna, at least for a short time.