Heinrichsdorf history 7

The previous post in this series noted that nearly a third of the family groups who were involved in the founding of Heinrichsdorf, according to the 1850 census, had left by the time the village church book was begin in 1858. A more systematic comparison of the 1850 census with the persons listed in the church book provides a more accurate picture of just how much of the church left.

If you recall, Heinrichsdorf had a population of 273 according to the 1850 census. Between 1850 and 1858, six residents are known to have died. That seems low, but that is the total that the church book records or we are able to confirm from the GRANDMA database. Subtracting those six leaves us with a potential 267 residents.

We need to set aside an additional nine residents who may be in the church book, even though a first pass through did not find them. All nine were single young females who may have married, in which case they would then be listed with their husbands in the church book. None of the nine was spotted in the book, but we will set them to the side so as not to skew the numbers. 267 – 9 = 258 remaining.

Of those 258, 119 seem to have left the village before 1858; 139 remained. That is, over 46 percent left their new home, a remarkably high number. To be clear, this does not mean that Heinrichdorf’s population decreased from 273 to 139 or thereabouts. Not only were children born to those who stayed, but it is also possible that a few other families moved to Heinrichsdorf (although the church book does not reflect that much, if at all). Even granting that there was natural growth within the remaining group, the net population decrease was severe.

Fourteen of the twenty family names had at least one member leave, but five families accounted for two-thirds of all the departures, with Bullers leading the way.

• Buller: 19
• Böse: 18
• Funk: 18
• Ratzlaff: 13
• Schmidt: 10

The other family groups with members who left were Janz (7), Pankratz (7), Teske (7), Unruh (7), Wedel (5), Köhn (3), Franz (2), Voth (2), and Worbel (1). This had obvious consequences for the makeup of the church, as the Unruhs now became the largest family group in the church, and the Nachtigals and Voths moved into the top six and the Böses and Ratzlaffs dropped out (compare the family numbers in the previous post).

• Unruh: 26
• Schmidt: 23
• Funk: 19
• Buller: 13
• Nachtigal: 10
• Voth: 10

One wonders what led so many people to leave after such a short time in Heinrichsdorf. It would also be interesting to explore where they went. We know that David Buller and family went back to Waldheim. How many others did the same? How many also went to some other location in Volhynia, such as Michalin or the villages in the Ostrog area? We will seek to answer these questions as we have time and the resources to do so. For now it is enough to know with relative certainty that almost half of the Heinrichsdorf residents left within the first decade of the village’s existence.