Benjamin Buller 15

Recently we have been intertwining the story of our ancestors David and Benjamin Buller with the broader history of the early days of Waldheim, but now it is time to return the focus squarely to our family. Fair warning: it is about to become a little complicated. To help us navigate, we begin with a recap of the route we have traveled thus far both chronologically and geographically.

1. Our earliest known ancestor is Benjamin X Buller (X for unknown). We know of his existence only because his son, our ancestor, was named Benjamin Benjamin Buller, and his middle name tells us the first name of his father. We assume that Benjamin X was born around 1765–1770 presumably in Poland (soon to become part of Prussia). For simplicity we refer to Benjamin X as Benjamin 1 and to his son as Benjamin 2.

It is plausible to think that Benjamin 1 and his family lived in the general vicinity of Schwetz along the Vistula River, the location where many Bullers were congregrated (number 1 on the map below). We really can say little more than this.

2. Benjamin 2 first appears on a census of Mennonites who had settled in a village named Zofyovka in Volhynia (number 2; see here). Benjamin, his wife Helena, their firstborn son Benjamin (Benjamin 3), and their nephew David emigrated to this area from Prussia and settled on a noble’s estate far north of the city of Rivne/Rovno, near the town of Wysock. If they began in the Schwetz area, their journey was approximately 360 miles in length.

The census reports that they emigrated in 1817 and that Benjamin 2 was thirty-one when the census was taken (probably 1820). Based on this we calculated that Benjamin 2 was probably born in 1789. We also deduced that his wife Helena, aged twenty-five, was likely born in 1795, their son Benjamin 3 in 1816. Our ancestor David Benjamin Buller makes his first appearance on that 1820 census, which helped us to date his birth to 1818, the year following his family’s emigration to Volhynia.

3. According to Martin Schrag, Benjamin 2 and family were among a group of Mennonites who left the village Zofyovka in 1828 and moved to a village named Ostrowka. We do not have documentary evidence for the date, but we do know that these Mennonites were in Ostrowka no later than 1833. Unfortunately, we do not know with certainty precisely where Ostrowka was located (Schrag’s location of it north of Lutskz notwithstanding), so there is no number for Ostrowka on the map. Ostrowka was probably 50–75 miles to the south of Zofyovka; whether to the east or west or straight south we do not yet know.

4. The 1833 document mentioned in the preceding paragraph listed Benjamin 2 and the ten members of his family as wishing to move to Molotschna colony (see here). That wish was fulfilled in 1839, as Benjamin and family journeyed 500 miles southeast to the village of Walheim in Molotschna colony (number 3). We know that not only because Benjamin 2 is listed as an 1839 settler (here) but also because his son Benjamin 3 is documented as an 1840 settler (here), and both are said to have planted crops in 1839 (here).

Our ancestor David is not mentioned in any of these latter documents, probably because he was still unmarried and thus living at home. That will change in the next document that we explore. To recap, in 1840 Benjamin 2 and family were in the Molotschna village named Waldheim; Benjamin 2 and his oldest son Benjamin 3 each owned a 175-acre Wirtschaft (plot), and the family appeared to be set for a long time to come. One would think that, after journeying nearly 1,000 miles since early 1817, they would be content to stay in one place. One would think …

The next primary resource for us to investiage was translated by Steve Fast; like all the other files, it is available on the Mennonite Genealogical Resources website. It is linked from the master document that Steve and Glenn Penner created (here) but can be directly accessed here. The title tells what the document is fairly clearly: “List of Mennonites Moving from Waldheim Back to Volhynia and Those Remaining in Waldheim: 1845.”

Several elements of the title deserve particular attention. (1) We start at the end, with the date. This list was created in 1845, a mere five years after we last checked in with Benjamin 2 and family. (2) the list is concerned only with Mennonites living in Waldheim. (3) The list presents the names of two groups of people: those remaining in Waldheim, and those returning to Volhynia (the previous home of all Waldheim residents).

Take a moment to think about that. The first settlers and residents came to Waldheim in 1838. Only seven years later, some residents were ready to leave, to return “home” to Volhynia. Was the soil of Waldheim inferior to Volhynia’s? Was the climate less hospitable? Was life in Molotschna colony intolerable from a religious or social perspective? I am unaware of the reason that some Waldheim residents wanted to return to Volhynia so soon, but the fact is that many did. Want to guess which of the two lists has Benjamin Buller’s name recorded?

We will pick up at this point in the next post. For now, feel free to review the 1845 list for yourself (here). Before we end this post, we should repeat and update our family timeline; there will be additional lines to add in the near future.

Year	Person(s)	Event
1765–1770	Benjamin 1/X	birth (X signifies unknown middle name)
ca. 1789	Benjamin Benjamin 2	born to Benjamin X
1817	Benjamin 2 and family (4)	emigrated from Prussia to Volhynia
1818	David Benjamin	birth on 25 January to Benjamin B
1819/1820	Benjamin 2, Helena, David, Benjamin 3, nephew David	listed on census living at Zofyovka, Rovno, Volhynia
1828	Benjamin 2 and family (?)	moved from Zofyovka to Ostrowka, Lutsk, Volhynia
1833	Benjamin 2 and family (11)	expressed desire to emigrate from Ostrowka to Molotschna colony
1839	Benjamin 2 and family	relocated to Waldheim, Molotschna colony; assigned a Wirtschaft
1839	Benjamin 2 and Benjamin 3	planted potatoes and flax
1840	Benjamin 3	assigned a Wirtschaft