Michael Teske

I promise we will return to Benjamin Buller, but sometimes it is interesting to wander a bit. The list of Mennonites who wished to move from Volhynia to Molotschna in 1833 includes Michael Teske (see here). The same individual appears on the 1819–1820 Rovno register (see here and our analysis here).

If you look closely at the listing in the Rovno register, you will notice that family 9 consists of three brothers and their mother, no one else. Michael was the youngest of the three, age twenty-one, which would put his year of birth in 1799 or thereabouts.

The Grandma database offers more information. There are only two Michael Teskes listed, and only one was born in 1799, so finding the right one is easy. Sure enough, this Michael Teske had two older brothers named Christian and Samuel. The listing for their father below shows all three boys and their mother Anna Marie Wert Teske.

But something odd stands out. Their father, Christian Teske Sr., did not pass away until 1847, twenty-seven years after the Rovno census was taken. In addition, there are also two younger brothers listed as a part of the family.

One wonders why the Rovno register lists only the three oldest sons and their mother but not their father, who seems to have been living in Germany, or their two younger brothers. Did this family break up, with some sons and their mother moving to Volhynia and the other sons and their father remaining in Germany? Certainly there is a story waiting to be told, and one wonders if that story perhaps involves conversion and a resulting division.

One final observation relates to Michael’s own Grandma entry.

The source of information for the date of his death is the Heinrichsdorf church book. Remember that church name; it will become important to us Bullers in future posts.