Alexanderwohl 12

A funny thing happened on the way to this blog post: I was contacted by John D. Richert, who is also working to identify Alexanderwohl’s founding settlers, and he and I agreed to share information back and forth as we independently research this interesting question. 

As Buller Time readers well know, we have been approaching the question from after the fact, as it were, examining the 1835 Molotschna census to identify who lived at a Wirtschaft at that time, then exploring the evidence in GRANDMA and the passport and visa records collected by Peter Rempel (2007) to determine if the 1835 resident was a likely original settler. John started at the other end, working through the passport and visa records to identify who were likely founders, then consulting GRANDMA and the 1835 census to clarify and confirm details.

John sent me an Excel file containing his results, and I will consult it after I have arrived at my own conclusion about a founding settler for each Wirtschaft, to see if John and I agree. Having two people examine the evidence from different perspectives should increase the accuracy of the results. It is also nice to know that there are others interested in writing the histories of the individual Molotschna villages of the early nineteenth century.

With all that as background, we continue our series with …

Wirtschaft 12

The index to the 1835 census (here) contains two entries for Alexanderwohl 12, and both entries have the same name:

Pankratz, Jakob Jakob (b. ca.1795) 
Pankratz, Jakob Jakob (b. ca.-)

Although one might think that this is one individual whose name has been accidentally duplicated, there is a better explanation. Note carefully that the first name has a year of birth, while the second does not. Apparently the second Jacob’s year of birth was not known, which would imply that he was older and probably deceased by the time the census was taken. A reasonable working hypothesis, then, is that the second listing was the father of the first.

This helps us search GRANDMA to identify these individuals. Because both men were named Jacob Jacob, we are looking for a grandfather and father and son all named Jacob Pankratz. For this time frame, only one family fits the criteria. The father is GM 43123, the son GM 32880. 

According to GRANDMA, Jacob 43123 was born 29 December 1774, so he would have been forty-seven through most of 1821, the official year of Alexanderwohl’s founding. Clearly, he was old enough to have settled a household in the new village. In addition, Pankratz is a relatively common surname in Przechovka, and, indeed, Jacob himself is listed in the church book (PCB: 727).

Emigration records offer additional evidence that Jacob was likely a founding settler. Specifically, he was issued a visa on 17 August 1820:

Jacob Pankratz from Konopath, his wife Helena 55 (b. ca. 1765), son Jacob 25 (b. ca. 1795), Peter 17 (b. ca. 1803), daughter Maria 21 (b. ca. 1799). Passport from Marienwerder issued on July 11, 1820. (Rempel 2007, 173)

The age of his wife does not match what our records indicate, but the names and ages of the children confirm that we have the right family in view. The Russian settlement record adds further details:

Jakob Pankratz (Якоб Панкрац), whose family consists of 3 males and 2 females. Settled in Russia in the year 1820. They had with them 2300 rubles cash, possessions valued at 610 rubles, 40 kopeks, 2 wagon, 4 horse, 4 head of cattle; wagon, horse or head of cattle cost 730 rubles. Settled at their own expense. (Rempel 2007, 176).

So if Jacob Pankratz the father was the settler, as is clear (John Richert concurs), why was Jacob the son listed on the census? The explanation is simple: the father died in 1830 (so the census), and the son took over the family household. One final note: in 1826 Jacob the son finally married. His wife? Sara Buller, the daughter of Jacob Buller, who had settled Wirtschaft 9 (see here).

Wirtschaft 13

The census evidence for Alexanderwohl 13 is similar to that for 12, in that the same name is given in two separate entries, one with a year of birth and one without. What sets this Wirtschaft apart is the listing of a third name, presumably another member of the same family.

Franz, Heinrich Heinrich (b. ca.1797)
Franz, Heinrich Heinrich (b. ca.-)
Franz, Kornelius Heinrich (b. ca.1797)

The explanation of the repeated names for Alexanderwohl 12 applies in this case as well: the name with a year of birth is the son; that without is the father, who died before the census and whose year of birth was not known by whoever supplied the information.

Consulting GRANDMA again, we can offer more details about this family. The father is GM 60378, and he was born around 1772; he was apparently a member of the Montau church, where his baptism is recorded. The Montau congregation was 15–20 miles downriver (northeast) from Przechovka, so it was in the same general area, though clearly distinct from Przechovka. Heinrich the father had two sons: Heinrich (GM: 273755), who was born in 1798; and Cornelius (GM: 60387), who was born in 1800. These are obviously the other two persons recorded in the census.

So, were these non-Przechovka Mennonites founders of Alexanderwohl? Almost certainly not. The family—Heinrich, his wife Elisabeth, sons Heinrich and Kornelius, daughter Elisabeth—emigrated to Russia a year later than most in the Przechovka church, in mid-1821. Further, the 1835 census reports that son Heinrich lived in another village first, namely, Tiegerweide; he (and his father and brother?) reportedly moved to Alexanderwohl 13 in 1833. 

What confuses the issue further is that father Heinrich is reported to have died in 1832, that is, a year prior to the family’s move to Alexanderwohl. This raises the question as to why the father is listed with that village at all, since he presumably never lived there. Perhaps all will be made clear when the translation of the census arrives. For now, all we know is that Heinrich Franz was presumably not the foundling settler of Alexanderwohl 13. Who that settler was is not, and may never be, known. 

This raises a question of why the original settlers of this and a few other Wirtschaften are not listed. It seems reasonable to think that when a Wirtschaft passed from one family to another, especially to an “outsider” family, a family not part of the Przechovka/Alexanderwohl church, it would not be surprising for the original owner’s name to be forgotten. Speaking from personal experience, this happens frequently today, and I assume it was the same two centuries ago. Thus, since this was the first census to be taken since the village was established fourteen years earlier, there was no documented record of a prior inhabitant, merely the potential that someone knew who had lived there previously—and the reality that sometimes no one remembered at all. Does that explain why the only listing for Alexanderwohl 13 is for a later resident? Perhaps, but only time and further research will tell us if that remains a viable explanation.

Alexanderwohl’s Original Settlers

Wirtschaft	Settler	GM Number	Notes
1	Martin Jacob Kornelsen	33801	PCB: 1250; emigrated 1820
	Anna Unrau	32780	first husband: David Buller
2	Heinrich Peter Block	29475	settlement year: 1823
3	?????
4	Peter Jacob Voth	268847	PCB ???; emigrated 1820
5	Heinrich David Schmidt	32966	PCB 1345; emigrated 1819
	Maricke Buller	32967	PCB 1355
6	Peter Johann Unrau	60318	PCB 1229; emigrated 1819
7	David Bernhard Voth	60325	Przechovka; emigrated 1820
8	?? Peter Franz Goerz	819683	to Alexanderwohl in 1826
9	Jacob Peter Buller	318737	PCB 377; emigrated 1820
10	David Johann Unrau	87011	PCB 987; emigrated 1820
11	Heinrich Isaak Schroeder	14829	Schönsee church; emigrated 1820
12	Jacob Jacob Pankratz	43123	PCB 727; emigrated 1820
13	?????

Work Cited

Rempel. Peter. 2007. Mennonite Migration to Russia, 1788–1828. Edited by Alfred H. Redekopp and Richard D. Thiessen. Winnepeg: Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.