| name | where counted and status | |
| 1 | Andreas Peter Nachtigal | number 3 with the family of his father Peter Heinrich Nachtigal |
| 2 | Johann Johann Schmidt | number 1 with the family of his step-father Kornelius Johann Funk |
| 3 | Jacob Gregor Buller | number 3 |
| 4 | Kornelius Kornelius Unruh | number 7 with the family of his father Kornelius David Unruh |
| 5 | Benjamin … Kornelius Unruh | number 7 with the family of his father Kornelius David Unruh |
| 6 | Samuel Martin Böse | number 21 |
| 7 | Martin Martin Bayer? [Behr] | number 24 |
| 8 | Heinrich Jacob Voth | number 37 |
| 9 | Heinrich Peter Sperling | number 38 with the family of his father Peter Tobias Sperling |
| 10 | Andreas Andreas Schmidt | number 45 |
| 11 | Benjamin Benjamin Buller | number 45 with the family of his father Benjamin Benjamin Buller |
| 12 | Peter David Schmidt | number 47 |
| 13 | Jacob Heinrich Pankratz | number 52 |
| 14 | Johann Kornelius Wedel | number 54? with the family of his brother Benjamin Kornelius Wedel |
| 15 | Heinrich Kornelius Wedel | number 54? with the family of his brother Benjamin Kornelius Wedel |
| 16 | David Georg Nachtigal | number 58 |
| 17 | Jacob Jacob Richert | number 59 |
The first thing one might notice about this list is that all seventeen names can be organized into just three categories:
- persons living with a family member who settled in Waldheim in 1839 (per the list here)
- persons living with a family member who settled in Waldheim before 1839
- persons living on their own, with no stated family connection to a Waldheim settler
The first category comprises three settlers: Benjamin Benjamin Buller (living with his father) and Johann Kornelius Wedel and Heinrich Kornelius Wedel (both living with their brother). The second category includes the five individuals who are said to be living with a family member whose name does not appear on the 1839 list: numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, and 9 (we will come back to this group). Finally, the largest group is of those who have no stated family connections in the village: numbers 3, 6, 7, 8, 10 (it is not obvious why Andreas Andreas Schmidt is located at the Benjamin Buller residence), 12, 13, 16, and 17—nine in all.
Putting the names into categories does have a larger purpose: it may help us identify Waldheim’s first settlers, those eight individuals who founded the town before 1839 and 1840. The logic is simple: since we know who arrived in Waldheim in 1839, if we omit all those names from the “X was at number Y with his family member” statements, we should end up with just the names of pre-1839 Waldheim residents. To be clear, we cannot assume that all residents became landowners; some of the early residents may have practiced a trade other than agriculture.
As noted above, five individuals from the 1840 list were with pre-1839 family members:
- 1: Andreas Peter Nachtigal was with his father Peter Heinrich Nachtigal
- 2: Johann Johann Schmidt was with his step-father Kornelius Johann Funk
- 4: Kornelius Kornelius Unruh was with his father Kornelius David Unruh
- 5: Benjamin Kornelius Unruh was with his father Kornelius David Unruh
- 9: Heinrich Peter Sperling was with his father Peter Tobias Sperling
The statements about these five individuals might be a clue to the names of four of the eight original settlers in Waldheim: Peter Heinrich Nachtigal, Kornelius Johann Funk, Kornelius David Unruh, and Peter Tobias Sperling. The theory (and it is no more than that) is that these four individuals had to be in Waldheim no later than 1838 in order to host family members in 1839. Of course, we do not know that all four hosts would become landowners; that remains to be seen. We will, of course, consider all of this no more than a theory until documentary evidence confirms, contradicts, or clarifies it.
We are not yet finished with the 1840 list, but we have covered enough territory in this post. We will turn to other matters in the next one.
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