We last encountered David on an 1845 list of Waldheim residents who had decided to move back to Volhynia (see here and here; for the full list, see here). Just six years after arriving in the village of Waldheim, most of Benjamin 2’s family joined a number of other villagers and made the long trek (around 400 miles) north to a new village in Volhynia whose name will be revealed shortly.
The document that permits us to speak of their move with such confidence is an 1850 census, that is, an official government record a mere five years after the Benjamin Bullers and other Mennonite families from Waldheim had left.
It is not clear (to me, at least) how often the Russian government took a census—assuming they even followed a regular schedule. What we do know is that Russia took a census at least in 1835 and again in 1850, both of which are reflected in the 1850 census that lists Benjamin and family. That document is titled “The 1850 Census of Heinrichsdorf, Volhynia” (translated by Steve Fast, with GRANDMA numbers added by Glenn Penner; see here).
Before we look at the relevant Buller entries in detail, a brief overview of the structure of the census will help us see the big picture.
1. Vertically considered, the census is arranged into two wide columns, with males on the left and females on the right.
2. Horizontally, the census arranges people by families, with each entry beginning with the family head, then children in order of age (generally).
3. As one can see in the far left column, each family is numbered consecutively.
4. The next column records the name of each male, led by the family head, as mentioned above.
5. The two columns after that give (1) the age of that person at the prior (1835) census or a note that the person was born after the 1835 census and (2) a note if the person listed had died.
5. The final column in the male half of the census lists the age of the person now, in 1850.
6. The female half of the census is similar at the outset, with the family number repeated on the left and the name of each female, often corresponding to the male name to the left (e.g., a wife is listed across from her husband).
7. The blank column in the middle of the female section is titled “Temporarily Absent” and “From What Time?” Since this column is blank throughout the census, it is not clear what might have been written there.
8. The final column gives the age of the female listed.
It is interesting that the census begins, at least with the males, by listing a person’s age in 1835 or noting that he was born or died after the 1835 census. Presumably this was one way for the census takers to calculate the change in population over that fifteen-year period. We should not imagine the census taker having a copy of the 1835 census in hand and supplementing it. Rather, the information was recorded fresh on the new census, reconstructed from the memories of the people being counted. Needless to say, we should expect some inaccuracies with regard to past events, although the names and ages of the people recorded in 1850 should be reliable.
So the 1850 census goes for thirty-one families comprising 144 males and 129 females, for a total of 273 Mennonites in the Volhynian village of Heinrichsdorf. The census also notes that it was signed on 25 October 1850, a little more than 165 years ago. To situate this historically, the U.S. Civil War was still more than a decade in the future. Even the Republican Party would not yet exist for another four years.
The next post will focus on the Benjamin Buller family in particular. If you want to look ahead, the Fast-Penner document can be viewed here. There is a great deal to learn about our family from this one document.
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