GM 5a, David Buller, 11303

With this post we return to our direct ancestral line, to Grandpa Chris’s great-grandfather David.

The information provided to GRANDMA is more extensive for David than that given for the Bullers already surveyed in this series; unfortunately, much of that information is incorrect.

Sources: Information relevant to David Buller appears in the following sources:

1. Register of Mennonites in Rovno Region, Volhynia, 1819–1820


2. 1850 Census of Heinrichsdorf, Volhynia


3. 1873–1874 Molotschna School Registers


4. Buller Family Record

To this list we should add the series of letters appearing in Die Mennonitische Rundschau that Buller Time examined in two series: The death of David Buller (here, here, here, and here) and Letters from Waldheim (here, here, here, here, and here).

Birth: The first order of business is to correct the date and place of David’s birth.

The Mennonitische Rundschau letters permit us to date David’s death precisely to 25 November 1904 (see further below); because we know that David lived eighty-six years and ten months (to the day, it seems), we can calculate a birth date of 25 January 1818.

GM apparently relies on the Buller Family Record for its date of birth and for its statement that David was born in Prussia. However, the BFR is mistaken on both counts. As shown in the Rovno register (link 1 above), David was two years old when the census was taken in 1820 (possibly 1819). More important, his family emigrated to Zofyovka in 1817, before David was born by any reckoning. This means, of course, that David was born in the village Zofyovka in the Rovno region of Volhynia. The entire GM line about David’s birth stands in need of correction.

Death: The GM place of death is correct, but the date is mistaken.

The Mennonitische Rundschau letters covered in the series on the death of David Buller were written within a few days to several months of his death; they are thus contemporary witnesses that should be judged as highly reliable with regard to their details. David’s date of death is given in a letter written by his son Heinrich as 12 November 1904. This date is likely given according to the Julian calendar (Russia was still using the Julian in 1904); the date according to our (Gregorian) calendar would be 25 November 1904.

Ironically, the accuracy of the 25 November date is actually supported by the BFR’s mistaken listing of it as David’s date of birth (i.e., 25 November 1817). The date 25 November was clearly important  in our family memory, important enough to be remembered even when it was applied to the wrong event. The length of life was also recalled correctly (eighty-six years and ten months), and that led the compilers of our family record to calculate a date of birth to fit that number and the mistaken date of death.

Establishing an accurate date of death based on contemporary evidence enables us to calculate the correct date of birth, which is what we did above. David’s dates of birth and death can be considered securely established: he was born 25 January 1818 and died on 25 November 1904.

We are roughly halfway through the David Buller entry, which seems like a good place to end this post. The following post will take up David’s family relations, then summarize all that we know about him.