GM 5c, David Buller, 11303

As noted in the previous post, several important facts of David Buller’s life were omitted. This post thus not only supplies those facts but also links to the sources on which they are based.

Sources

Two Molotschna colony school rosters mention David:

• 1861–8162 Molotschna School Register


• 1873–1874 Molotschna School Register

Family Facts

The two school rosters are arranged the same way. The family name is listed first, followed by the father’s name in parentheses, then each child and his or her age. Following that is the village name and, for those families who owned a land allotment, the number of the Wirtschaft.

Scrolling down to the Waldheim listings in the 1861–1862 register, one discovers the following entry:

• Buller (David) Benjamin 9, David 6     Waldheim

The identity of the three people named clearly corresponds to David our ancestor and his youngest sons by Helena Zielke (see also the post here).

This confirms something that we already knew: David and family were in Waldheim before 1861. In fact, we think he had been back in Waldheim six to eight years by now; we also suspect that Helena had died before the 1861–1862 school year, so sons Benjamin and David either had no mother at all or lived with a stepmother (David’s second wife).

The 1873–1874 school register in the second link also pertains to David, although his situation has changed significantly.

• Buller (David) Jacob 9 Waldheim 48

Neither Benjamin nor David is listed this time; this roster is from twelve years later, and they were both long past school age. A new son is listed here: Jacob, the nine-year-old son of David’s second marriage.

The other important fact is revealed by the number 48, which identifies David’s Wirtschaft. In 1861–1862 David did not own any land. We should add here that David did not own land during his first residence in Waldheim in the 1840s. His father Benjamin and his older brother Benjamin had a land allotment, but David did not. Sometime before 1873, however, David became a landowner.

The Buller Time post that first discussed this discussed this school roster (here) suggested that David was granted this land in 1869 or thereabouts, when additional half-Wirtschaften were distributed in order to address the landlessness crisis (see also here). This remains a reasonable explanation, and it seems safe to conclude that David was a Molotschna landowner from the late 1860s until his death over thirty years later. This fact is an important part of David’s story and deserves to be included in any account of his life.