Moving to Molotschna 3

The previous post in this series identified some of the legal documents that the Mennonites moving from West Prussia/Poland had to secure before making the 900-mile journey: a passport issued by the regional Prussian authorities authorized its bearer to travel and, ultimately, to exit the West Prussian territory; a visa, or entrance permit, was issued by the Russian General Consulate and presented when the immigrant crossed into Russian territory.

Of course, the process depended on the willingness of the governing authorities to accommodate the Mennonite requests, and that was not always freely granted. The Prussian government was caught in a dilemma: on the one hand, the Mennonites were typically productive members of society, not only as farmers but also as shopkeepers and artisans; on the other hand, Mennonites refused to take up arms against Prussia’s enemies, which rendered them less useful to the militaristic Prussians. These competing realities often led to a conflicted state of affairs. Peter Klassen explains: 

would-be emigrants often found numerous obstacles to their leaving, not least among them being the uncertain and often contradictory policies of the Prussian government. Administrative officials, concerned about economic productivity, used a variety of obstructionist tactics to try to prevent farmers, artisans, business persons and laborers from leaving: denying permission to emigrate; impeding the sale or purchase of land or other possessions; refusing to process documents, etc. (Klassen 1998, 85)

Eventually the Department of External Affairs in Berlin attempted to bring some clarity to the matter:

While emigration was to be discouraged, limited permission to emigrate could be granted, for “our state … needs citizens and inhabitants who will, if necessary, defend their state and serve as soldiers, which according to their religious principles Mennonites reject.” … On May 17,1788 Berlin authorities seemed to open the door to emigration and stipulated that since Mennonites do not wish to perform any military service, they “shall be given permission to emigrate if they so desire, and if they do not possess any land.”  (Klassen 1998, 88)

Unfortunately, the implementation of the policy varied from district to district and time to time. Many of the Mennonites who left for Molotschna in the early nineteenth century, for example, did own land. Obviously, the conditions of the 1788 declaration were not applied rigorously or uniformly. Klassen notes further:

Frequently the government in Berlin gave latitude to local authorities in Marienwerder and Königsberg in interpreting official pronouncements. Lands were not to be left destitute because of emigration, nor were local economies to be adversely affected. Special care was to be taken to make sure that nothing would be done to reduce military obligations. On the other hand, persons not owning land, and thus not tied to the cantonal military policies, might well be permitted to leave. (Klassen 1998, 92)

In other words, as long as the local economy was not damaged significantly by the loss of productive members of society, and as long as an area’s ability to supply the mandated number of militia to the national army was not endangered, permission to emigrate could be granted.

Of course, because human behavior in the nineteenth century was no different from what it is today, it is not surprising to learn that not everyone could be trusted to play by the rules. Klassen, for example, notes one particularly clever way that some Mennonites gamed the system. Because Danzig was still a free city, residents of that city did not need to abide by Prussian law. So it was, Hendrick Donner of the Orlofferfelde church west of Danzig reports, that “many members of his church ignored this directive, moved to Danzig, then emigrated from there”  (Klassen 1998, 88).

Because of the possibility of unauthorized emigration, the Prussian government and local authorities expended significant effort to regulate human traffic within and beyond its borders. According to the Wikipedia article “Germany Emigration and Immigration” (here),

Passport regulations between 1815 and the 1850s in German territories were in the hands of police officers. They were allowed access to guest books in inns, they could trace the exact travel route by looking at visas and remarks on the travel documents. People were sometimes willfully subjected to examinations, long periods of waiting or even corporal punishment. 

In spite of the government’s efforts to ensure compliance, secret emigration, otherwise known as illegal immigration, from the perspective of the destination country, was a persistent problem. The Wikipedia article adds:

not enough officers were available to enforce emigration-immigration/migration laws which account for the many secret emigrations from German territories. Statistics say that at times 90% of the population in some areas of East Prussia emigrated without official consent. In other German territories the amount of secret emigrations sway between 30 and 50%, and that is only estimated.

It would be foolish to believe that Mennonites emigrated to Russia only when they had permission to do so; certainly some made the trek without the necessary authorization. This raises the question of how to judge particular cases. To bring this home to Buller Time, what are we to make of the fact that the usual sources do not record a visa for Benjamin Heinrich Buller? It may be that a visa exists (or existed) and that we have not yet found it. It is also possible that our ancestor Benjamin was, shall we say, an illegal immigrant to New Russia. We cannot decide one way or the other at this time. 

Beyond that, it seems that the larger phenomenon merits further study. If some Mennonites emigrated from Prussia to New Russia without permission to do so, as seems highly likely, can we determine, even roughly, the percentage of settlers in New Russia, or Molotschna alone, who left Prussia and entered Russia without authorization? An intriguing question—I hope that someone someday will attempt to offer a data-driven answer.

Work Cited

Klassen, Peter J. 1998. Barriers to Emigration from Prussia. Mennonite Quarterly Review 72:84–95

Alexanderwohl 17b

Several posts ago we examined the census records for Alexanderwohl Wirtschaft 19 (here), which was settled in 1822 by Peter Reimer. We also noted that Reimer emigrated to Molotschna much earlier, in 1804, and was identified as having lived at Lichtenau 28 before moving to Alexanderwohl. The post commented as follows:

What led him to move to a new village is unknown, although it is possible that he resided, but did not own, Lichtenau 28, which would provide a clear rationale for his move: to secure his own Wirtschaft.

Glenn Penner wrote today to offer additional clarity. Glenn notes that there was no Wirtschaft 28 in Lichtenau (the village contained only twenty-one Wirtschaften); therefore, Reimer was without doubt a landless cottager in Lichtenau, counted as “family 28” (not owner of plot 28, which did not exist) in the census. As Glenn further observes, it would have been a significant advance for Reimer to secure his own plot in Alexanderwohl, and that is certainly the explanation for his move to Alexanderwohl shortly after its founding.

This does not alter our developing perspective of the nature of Alexanderwohl’s founding, although it highlights one aspect of it: from the outset Alexanderwohl was home both to members of the Przechovka church and to other Mennonite families with no prior connection to it. As we have noted periodically in this series, the Gemeindebericht portrays the village’s founding in simple and uniform terms, but the reality was not quite as neat as the community report leads one to think.

Alexanderwohl 18

We are two-thirds of our way through the Alexanderwohl Wirtschaften, which is a good time to take stock. Of the twenty Wirtschaften covered, we have identified the original settler in at least seventeen of them, more likely eighteen. The Przechovka association of the original founders claimed by the  community report has been proven largely correct but not entirely so. Fourteen of these seventeen settlers were indeed from the Przechovka church, but three (18 percent) were not of that group. It will be interesting to see if these figures change or remain the same over the course of the last ten families.

Wirtschaft 21

Three names are associated with Alexanderwohl 21:

Dalke, Johann Peter (b. ca.1803)
Dalke, Ludwig Peter (b. ca.1808)
Dalke, Peter Christian (b. ca.1778)

The first two are clearly the sons of the third, since their middle names are the same as his first name; the birth years also imply strongly the father–sons relationship, and the text of the census confirms it. 

The census reports further that the Dalke (or Dahlke) family arrived in Molotschna in 1821, which is confirmed by a 5 June 1821 visa identifying this family:

Peter Dahlke from Konopath, his wife Petronde (?) 35 (b. ca. 1786), daughter Elisabeth 15 (b. ca. 1806), Anna 7 (b. ca. 1814), Gottliebe (5) b. ca. 1816), sons Johann 13 (b. ca. 18108), Ludwig 9 (b. ca. 1812), Peter 3 (b. ca. 1818), Ephraim 1 (b. ca. 1820). Passport from Marienwerder issued on April 14, 1821. (Rempel 2007, 179)

The visa states that the family lived in Konopath, which is where many families in the Przechovka church lived. (Whether this was Greater Deutsch Konopath, Lesser Deutsch Konopath, or even Polski Konopat 3 miles northwest of the Deutsch Konopath villages is unknown and unimportant.) However, to my knowledge there is no Dalke/Dahlke listed in the Przechovka church book. The family was obviously Mennonite (they emigrated to a Mennonite colony), but we do not know if they were associated with the Przechovka church. It is possible that they were members of a different Mennonite church in the area. 

This might seem odd, but we encountered the same situation earlier with Heinrich Isaak Schroeder of Alexanderwohl 11. Although he emigrated from Schönsee a few miles from the Przechovka church, he was not a member of that church. It seems likely that similar circumstances might be at play with the Dalke family. That is, they moved from the same rough locale, possibly even the same village, as the Przchevoka church members but were not part of the Przechovka groups who emigrated. This should not surprise us, since Mennonites living in the same community would have shared information about the opportunities in New Russia and their plans to relocate, even if they did not attend the same church. That the Dalkes followed in the footsteps of the Przechovka groups makes good sense, since they probably knew these people already, even if they had not worshiped beside them in the past.

All that is somewhat speculative, but one thing is certain: Peter Christian Dalke (GM 3506) and his family were the original settlers of Alexanderwohl 21. The Russian settlement records leave no doubt about that fact.

Peter Dahlke (Петр Далке), whose family consists of 5 males and 4 females. On their move to Russia they brought possessions valued at 400 rubles, horses valued at 30 rubles. Settled in Alexanderwohl, Molotschna. Began receiving financial aid in the year 1822. (Rempel 2007, 187; see also 181)

In the end, the Dalke family complicates the neat picture painted by the Gemeindebericht, since they were another Mennonite family who had ties to the Przechovka area but not the church itself. The statement that the community “had existed as a church in Prussia for over 200 years” is seen once again to be largely but not entirely accurate.

Wirtschaft 22

The next founding settler offers a further disruption to the community report’s tidy picture. Peter Benjamin Frey is the only person listed for Alexanderwohl 22. However, Alexanderwohl is not the only Molotschna village listed for Peter Benjamin Frey. He first lived in Franztal (or Franzthal), then moved to Alexanderwohl, just as Jacob Jacob Buller of Alexanderwohl 15 had done (here). Before we get ahead of ourselves, we should give the basic background information on Peter Frey.

Peter Frey (GM: 35807) was, as expected, given his last name, a Przechovka church member: 1351 in the church book. According to emigration records, he moved to Molotschna with the 1819 group. His visa was issued by the Russian General Consulate on 20 July 1819:

Peter Frey Farmer from Jezio(r)ko with his wife, 2 daughters. Passport from Marienwerder issued on July 13, 1819. (Rempel 2007, 137)*

Russian settlement records from 1819 confirm that the family settled first in Franztal (Wirtschaft 27, the census tells us):

Peter Frey (Петр Фрей), whose family consists of 1 male and 2 females. On their move to Russia they brought 114 rubles cash, horses valued at 20 rubles and possessions valued at 80 rubles. They arrived in Russia in 1819 and settled in Franztal, Molotschna. (Rempel 2007, 158)

A second report, dated 1821, provides a fuller, and at times contradictory, accounting:

Peter Frey (Петр Фрей), whose family consists of 1 male and 2 females. Settled in Russia in the year 1819. They had no cash. They brought possessions valued at 400 rubles, no wagon, no horses, 2 head of cattle; wagon, horse or head of cattle cost 110 rubles. The local administration suggested providing financial aid for the purchase of 1 wagon, 2 horses and one head of cattle at a sum of 160 rubles, and also for building a house and establishing the household, at a sum of 589 rubles. (Rempel 2007, 145)

Leaving the discrepancies in cash and possessions aside, one wonders: Why are there two different reports separated by several years? The answer is actually simple: the 1819 report records Peter Frey and family taking up residence—but not establishing a household—in Franztal; the 1821 report has to do with their move to—and establishment of a household, or Wirtschaft, in—Alexanderwohl. Funding for establishing a household was provided only to those who had secured title to land; it was meant for settlers, not mere residents.

The fact that Peter Frey was provided funding for a household in 1821, the same year he relocated from Franztal to Alexanderwohl, confirms his status as a founding settler in Alexanderwohl, specifically of Wirtschaft 22.

In addition to identifying two more of Alexanderwohl’s founders, one from the Przechovka church and one from the same Prussian/Polish locale but not a member of that church, this post raises a new question that deserves attention down the road. Thus far we have focused on Alexanderwohl and asked how many of its settlers came from the Przechovka church. That is all well and good, but we should also turn the question around and ask about all the Mennonites who emigrated to Molotschna from the Przechovka church: How many of them journeyed there, and where in Molotschna did they start their new lives?

***

* The reference to two daughters in the visa is intriguing, since the Russian settlement report (Rempel 2007, 158) lists only Frey and two females in the family. GRANDMA knows of a daughter Maria but not the name of her mother or of the existence of a second daughter. If both the visa and the settlement report are correct, then either the unnamed mother or unnamed daughter died before the Frey family settled in Franztal (i.e., to account for the presence of two, rather than three, females in the family). Since Peter Frey married his second wife in 1821 or 1822, one might imagine that the mother was the one who died, apparently en route or shortly thereafter.

Wirtschaft	Settler	GM	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	?????
14	Heinrich Peter Unrau	86839	PCB 1149; emigrated 1819
15	Jacob Jacob Buller	5587	PCB 1139; emigrated 1819; settled 1822
16	Johann Peter Ratzlaff	60394	Przechovka; Benjamin Heinrich Buller son-in-law
17	Heinrich Jacob Schmidt	50991	Przechovka; emigrated 1822
18	Jacob David Schmidt	32895	PCB 1302; emigrated 1819
19	Peter Johann Reimer	46418	emigrated in 1804; settled 1822
20	Andreas David Schmidt	43155	PCB 1272; emigrated 1819
21	Peter Christian Dalke	3506	Konopath but not PCB; emigrated 1821
22	Peter Benjamin Frey	35807	PCB 1351; emigrated 1819

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.

Moving to Molotschna 2

The first post in this series (here) focused on the length of the journey that Benjamin Heinrich Buller and other Przechovka residents undertook both in terms of distance (around 900 miles) and the time it took to travel (walk) the complete route (five to seven weeks). This post turns to some of the bureaucracy that these Mennonites had to navigate in order to make the trek from Prussia to New Russia. It should be admitted at the outset that there is probably more that I do not know than what I do know. Caveat lector!

We have referenced a number of times two different types of immigration documents: a passport issued by a local authority in West Prussia and a visa issued by the Russian government. In simple terms, the former gave its holder permission to leave his or her immediate area, while the latter was required to enter another country (i.e., Russia). One might think of them in simple terms as exit and entrance permits.

1. According to Wikipedia, emigration laws and policies within the German Empire of which Prussia was a part varied not only from province to province but from locale to locale. Consequently, we are unable at present to describe precisely the laws governing the emigration of our Mennonite ancestors from the Schwetz area, which was within the province West Prussia, which was within the Kingdom of Prussia, which was within the German Empire. We can, however, provide a broad outline.

The Wikipedia article on “Germany Emigration and Immigration” (here) explains, for example:

Before each travel which would entail departure from immediate surroundings a passport had to be issued by the local mayor or the judge of the regional administration. Such papers were valid for the length of the journey or for one year. Identification had to be shown to each official who wanted to see them. Document controls could occur in the street, the next big town or at the first overnight stay.

Note that a passport was required for any travel away from one’s immediate surroundings, which the article later clarifies as farther than 8 miles from home. Clearly, these Mennonites wishing to travel to the Prussian–Russian border and beyond could not begin to do so without the legal authorization to do so, which is why we read repeatedly of a passport being issued before travel plans were finalized.

In all of the examples we have considered thus far, the passport was issued “from Marienwerder” (see the multiple examples on Rempel 2007, 137–39, 172–74). Located 20 miles northeast of Schwetz on the other side of the Vistula River, Marienwerder (modern Kwidzyn) was capital of the Marienwerder administrative district from 1815 until 1945. (The other administrative region in West Prussia was Regierungsbezirk Danzig.) As the regional capital, Marienwerder was the place where everyone in the district had to receive the document, or passport, authorizing the bearer to travel any significant distance.

One final note before we move on to the visa. If you recall, we wondered why Martin Kornelsen had an 1819 passport and then an 1820 passport followed by an 1820 visa (see here). We suggested that perhaps the passport was good for only a year, so that Martin had to secure a second passport when he was unable to emigrate before the year on his first one expired. The new information provided above confirms that hunch.

2. Nineteenth-century emigration involved two governments: one’s home government, which had to give permission for one to travel away from home; and the government of one’s future home, which had to authorize entry into the country. The visa, or entry permit, is the document that provided the latter authorization.

Turning again to Wikipedia, to the article “Visa History of Russia” (here), we read:

Under the Russian Empire, legislation was enacted, in phases and in sufficient detail, to regulate the order of entry, and the period of residence, of foreigners in Russia. The legislation specified the categories of foreigners who had the right of free entry to the country, who could stay and gain citizenship, as well those who did not have such a right. Foreigners arriving in Russia had to have a passport of their country, and have a form giving permission for a specified period of stay. Rules of admission were not the same for all, and depended on the category or specialization and on other factors (nationality, the purpose of travel, religion, etc.).

We have frequently read the visas for Alexanderwohl’s settlers, such as that for Martin Kornelsen, issued 17 August 1820:

Martin Kornelsen from Konopath, his wife Anna 32 (b. ca. 1788), step-sons Peter Buller 11 (b. ca. 1809), David Buller 7 (b. ca. 1813), step-daughter Anna Buller 9 (b. ca. 1811), daughter Maria 5 (b. ca 1815), Helena 1 (b. ca. 1819). Passport from Marienwerder issued on July 11, 1820. (Rempel  2007, 172)

All of the visas thus far considered were issued by the Russian General Consulate in Danzig. Whether or not Russia had other consulates in Prussia at this time, the Danzig consulate was clearly the one responsible for emigration from the larger region.

Only further examination will reveal the typical time frame from receipt of the passport to receipt of a visa (since the passport had to be secured for a visa to be issued), but the one month between the two in Kornelsen’s case seems to be fairly representative.

***

Securing the paperwork authorizing emigration was not all that was required before our Mennonite forebears were able to journey to a new land and their new lives. There were also financial demands and considerations, which will be the subject of the following post.

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.

Alexanderwohl 17

We continue to work our way through Alexanderwohl, wondering what interesting life stories we will glimpse in the next Wirtschaften. 

Wirtschaft 19

The census lists two individuals with the same surname for Alexanderwohl 19:

Reimer, Heinrich Peter (b. ca.1807)
Reimer, Peter Johann (b. ca.1786)

The correspondence between the younger one’s middle name (Peter) and the older one’s first name hints strongly that the two are father and son, and the text of the census and GRANDMA (46418 for Peter; 60410 for Heinrich) confirm that that is the case. 

The more interesting facts of the matter are that Reimer is not a name typically associated with the Przechovka church. In fact, I do not recall any other Mennonites with that surname listed in the church book. That the Reimers present a different situation is confirmed by the census note that Peter emigrated to Molotschna in 1804, that is, more than fifteen years prior to the establishment of Alexanderwohl. 

The census also lists Peter Reimer at Lichtenau 28, one of the original Molotschna villages, along with a comment that he moved to Alexanderwohl in 1822. What led him to move to a new village is unknown, although it is possible that he resided, but did not own, Lichtenau 28, which would provide a clear rationale for his move: to secure his own Wirtschaft.

Whatever his motivation for moving to Alexanderwohl, Peter Reimer was, in fact, a founding settler of that village, the first resident of Wirtschaft 19. As has happened several times during this exercise, the 1848 Gemeindebericht (community report) is found to present an oversimplified version of the village’s history. Alexanderwohl was settled largely by members of the Prussian/Polish Przechovka church, but not exclusively so, as one might infer from a casual reading of the report. Peter Reimer and family were an exception to the rule. 

Interestingly, Peter did not spend the rest of his days in Alexanderwohl but moved on to Gnadenheim in 1843 and, if the family history recorded in GRANDMA is correct, moved to Halbstadt after that and then to Pordenau, where he died in 1862.

Wirtschaft 20

Three men of roughly the same age are listed in the index to the 1835 census:

Koehn, Jakob Heinrich (b. ca.1795)
Brauer, Erdman Erdman (b. ca.1792)
Schmidt, Andreas David (b. ca.1788)

Only Schmidt is a last name represented in the Przechovka church, and, in fact, the census lists Andreas as the head of household for Alexanderwohl 20; the other two individuals were “accepted into the household,” a phrase of uncertain meaning that we have encountered before.

The census also indicates that Andreas Schmidt (GM 43155; PCB 1272) emigrated to Molotschna in 1819, so probably with the earliest and largest group from Przechovka. The emigration records offer support for that hypothesis:

Andreas (Andre) Schmidt Farmer from Przechovka with his wife, 2 sons, his mother. Passport from Marienwerder issued on July 5, 1819.  (Rempel 2007, 137)

The ages of the children and the mention of his mother accord with the facts that we have, including that his father died in 1812, which explains why Andreas Schmidt’s mother accompanied him as part of his family. 

We are not certain Andreas can be identified in the Russian settlement records, although the following report does accord with his situation:

Andreas Schmidt (Андреас Шмидт), whose family consists of 3 males and 3 females. Settled in Russia in the year 1820. They had no cash. They brought possessions valued at 304 rubles, 5 kopeks, 1 wagon, no horses and no cattle; wagon, horse or head of cattle cost 70 rubles. The local administration suggested providing financial aid for the purchase of 2 horses, 2 head of cattle at a sum of 210 rubles, and also for building a house and establishing the household, at a sum of 589 rubles. (Rempel 2007, 176)

If you are paying close attention, you may wonder how the husband, wife, two sons, and mother suddenly became three males and three females. According to GRANDMA, Andreas and his wife Helena welcomed their first daughter on 9 November 1819, that is, after the visa was issued but before they were settled. Worth nothing also is that Helena made the 900-mile journey during the last months of her pregnancy.

Andreas was not the only member of his immediate family to settle in Alexanderwohl (thanks to John Richert for the tip). We already encountered his younger brothers Heinrich (Wirtschaft 5 here) and Jacob (Wirschaft 18 here). Both brothers were judged to be founding settlers of Alexanderwohl, and Andreas joins them as one of the village’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	?????
14	Heinrich Peter Unrau	86839	PCB 1149; emigrated 1819
15	Jacob Jacob Buller	5587	PCB 1139; emigrated 1819; settled 1822
16	Johann Peter Ratzlaff	60394	Przechovka; son-in-law to Benjamin Heinrich Buller
17	Heinrich Jacob Schmidt	50991	Przechovka; emigrated 1822
18	Jacob David Schmidt	32895	PCB 1302; emigrated 1819
19	Peter Johann Reimer	46418	emigrated in 1804; settled 1822
20	Andreas David Schmidt	43155	PCB 1272; emigrated 1819

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.

Alexanderwohl 16

The previous two posts in this series covered Benjamin Heinrich Buller, our own ancestor, who resided at Alexanderwohl 16. We pick up at that point with this post.

Wirtschaft 17

The evidence of the index to the census and the census itself is straightforward, listing only one head of household for this plot:

Schmidt, Heinrich Jakob (b. ca.1796)

Identifying this person is not so simple, however, since none of the Heinrich Schmidts with a father named Jacob listed in GRANDMA seems to match. John Richert identifies him as GM 50991, which seems to be a good overall match, since that person had a son named Jacob and a daughter named Anna whose birth years match the ages given for children of the same names on the census. 

That does not mean that everything is clear with Heinrich Schmidt—far from it. The census states that his children Jacob and Anna are from his second marriage, and Jacob’s age of eleven would put the date of that marriage at 1823 or thereabouts. The census also gives Schmidt’s wife’s name as Katharina. The GRANDMA entry for Schmidt, not surprisingly, lists two wives.

What is surprising is that Katharina—a.k.a. Trincke (remember that Katharina = Trincke, as we saw in our own family; see here)—is listed first, with another wife listed second.  Further, the second wife listed, Maria Schmidt, did not marry Heinrich until his first wife, Katharina, died on 15 February 1843. If Katharina was Schmidt’s second wife, as the 1835 census clearly states, then he must have had a wife before her, a wife not listed in any records known to us. Thus Heinrich had three wives over the course of his life: an unknown wife, Katharina Harpart, and Maria Schmidt.

A few other details will permit us to fill out the picture a bit further. Note that Heinrich and Katharina were married on 22 December 1822. The census indicates that he emigrated to Molotschna in 1822. Logic dictates that, unless he arrived and arranged the marriage within the last two weeks of the year, he must have arrived earlier in the year and then married Katharina Harpart, who had already settled in Alexanderwohl in 1819 along with her sister and brother-in-law Peter Johann Unrau (see here for that family; thanks to John Richert for noting that).

One final mystery. We do not know who Heinrich’s first wife was or when she died; thus we do not know if she died before Heinrich came to Alexanderwohl or made the trip with him and then died, which led Heinrich to remarry later that year. The immigration records, unfortunately, do not settle the matter, since they list two Heinrich Schmidts, both of whom could be construed as this Heinrich. One was accompanied by a female and settled in Molotschna in 1822 (Rempel 2007, 186); the other was single when he arrived and settled in Alexanderwohl in 1823 (191). The first Heinrich received a governmental loan to establish a household; the second received financial aid of an unspecified nature (several landless residents of Alexanderwohl received the same aid). I incline toward thinking that the first is our Heinrich, but it may well be the second.

In the end, some key details about Heinrich Schmidt remain unknown. In fact, we cannot even point to unambiguous evidence that he was associated with the Przechovka church in Prussia/Poland, although it is a safe bet that he was, given the close connection of the Schmidt family with that church. The one thing we can conclude with certainty is that Heinrich Schmidt was the founding settler of Alexanderwohl 17, so we will add him to our list as such.

Wirtschaft 18

This one will be quick. The census lists only one person for Alexanderwohl 18:

Schmidt, Jakob David (b. ca.1789)

We can identify this person as GM 32895, based on the name of his father and all the names of his and wife Anna Schmidt’s living children (seven of them) in 1835. Although neither Jacob Schmidt nor Anna Schmidt are listed in the Przechovka church book, both of their fathers (distant relatives) are, which establishes the connection of this couple with that Polish/Prussian church.

The census indicates that the couple emigrated to Alexanderwohl in 1819, so they were presumably part of the first Przechovka group. In fact, they are listed as having received their passport on 13 July 1819 and their visa authorizing travel one week later on 20 July. Why is this worth noting? The visa lists Jacob Schmidt, a “Mennonite from Glogowko with his wife” (Rempel 2007, 137)—in other words, just the couple. According to GRANDMA, their first child was born 21 July 1819, one day after the visa was issued. If both sets of dates are given according to the same system (Julian or Gregorian), then Anna gave birth to a child just before their 900-mile journey began. Once again, the strength and determination of the Mennonites who colonized Molotschna, women and men alike, shines through.

There are no other residents of Alexanderwohl 18, so we can safely conclude that this early settler family was, in fact, the founding settler of this Wirtschaft.

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	?????
14	Heinrich Peter Unrau	86839	PCB 1149; emigrated 1819
15	Jacob Jacob Buller	5587	PCB 1139; emigrated 1819; settled 1822
16	Johann Peter Ratzlaff	60394	Przechovka; son-in-law to Benjamin Heinrich Buller
17	Heinrich Jacob Schmidt	50991	Przechovka
18	Jacob David Schmidt	32895	Przechovka

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.

Moving to Molotschna 1

Our goal with the Alexanderwohl series is not merely to create a list of names, including Bullers, that we can associate with this Molotschna village, important though that may be. Rather, in addition to identifying the individuals who founded and settled in Alexanderwohl, we want to learn about their lives, including the various challenges they faced before leaving their Prussian/Polish home, while on their lengthy journey, and even after they started their new lives on the steppes.

The series in which we pursue these matters (if, in fact, this idea successfully evolves into a series) will not proceed systematically but rather will hop around from topic to topic, drawing from whatever resource provides material for an informative look at a discrete issue. 

This post, for example, is concerned with a narrowly defined subject: the journey from the Schwetz area in Prussia (formerly Poland), where the Przechovka church was located, to Alexanderwohl in Molotschna colony. The questions we will consider are simple: How far did the Mennonites of Przechovka (which included our ancestor Benjamin Heinrich Buller) travel? What means of transportation did they have at their disposal? How long did their journey take?

GoogleMaps allows us to calculate the distance at around 900 miles, which would be comparable to a road trip from central Nebraska to western Pennsylvania. So much for the distance traveled. What about their means of transportation? According to Heinrich Goerz, this depended on the wealth of the family making the trek. The first wave of Molotschna immigrants, of 1803 and 1804,

generally were more pros­perous than the first Chortitza group. Approximately 63 families did not accept any assistance from the Russian government. In fact, 89 families among them had managed to sell their lovely farms in Prussia advantageously and among them brought along 10,000 to 20,000 gold ducats. Their large canvas-upholstered wagons drawn by four or six horses were loaded down with fine furniture, chests, wardrobes, chairs, tables and bedsteads made of walnut wood. Later followed a large number of rather poor families who needed the support of their wealthier co-religionists. (1993, 4)

We have periodically noted the same financial disparity between various of Alexanderwohl’s original settlers: some arrived in Molotschna with one or two horses as well as cattle; others were reported as having only a wagon but no animals to pull it. Goerz is well aware of people in the latter situation, since he reports:

According to P. M. Friesen, some among the later immigrants were so poor that they had no horse-drawn means of transportation and had to pull or push their own small wagons. (1993, 4, citing Friesen’s The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia [1789–1910])

During the migration of a larger caravan such as one or another of the Przechovka groups, it is likely that even those who could travel faster because they had horses pulling the wagons would have been held to a slow pace by those who relied on their own strength to propel their wagons forward. Consequently, one would expect that their journey was closer to the long end than the short end of the average travel time.

With our highly developed system of transportation today we can hardly imagine the difficulties presented by such a wagon trip from Prussia. The roads were very primitive and, on average, the journey lasted from five to seven weeks. Those who could cover the distance in 35 days, as the ministers Warkentin and Regehr had in 1794, considered they made it in record time. (Goerz 1993, 4)

For the sake of argument, we will assume that Benjamin Buller’s journey to Alexanderwohl took seven weeks. If Benjamin and party traveled every one of those forty-nine days (they did not), then they averaged a little more than 18 miles a day. It seems likely that they took at least one day off every week (the Alexanderwohl Gemeindebericht reports, for example, that the party rested two days south of Warsaw), so their average daily distance was probably closer to 24 or 25 miles, or nearly the distance from the I-80 Henderson exit to the Beaver Crossing exit. 

A human’s average walking speed is, according to Wikipedia, 3.1 miles per hour. Leaving aside the fact that the average speed for a human pulling a wagon would certainly be less, we can calculate that a 25-mile daily trek would require slightly more than eight hours of walking. Add in mealtimes and periodic rests, and one begins to appreciate how significant an undertaking the journey from Prussia to Molotschna really was. 

The journey itself was not the only challenge that our forebears faced. They also had to overcome the bureaucratic demands of both Prussia and Russia before they could even begin their journey, as well as additional complications once they arrived. We will turn our attention to some of those topics in the next posts in the series (at least that is the plan).

Work Cited

Goerz, Heinrich. 1993. The Molotschna Settlement. Translated by Al Reimer and John B. Toews. Echo Historical Series. Winnipeg, MB: CMBC Publications and Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.

Alexanderwohl 15

Wirtschaft 16 (cont.)

The last post ended with the three names listed for Alexanderwohl 16 in the 1835 census:

Benjamin Benjamin (b. ca.-)
Ratzlaff, Johann Peter (b. ca.1780)
Unrau, Benjamin Goerg (b. ca.1800)

The census itself (see below for the English translation) seems to indicate that Benjamin Unrau was not what we have been labeling an original founder of Alexanderwohl, since his name is preceded by an important note: “accepted into the household.” As a resident of someone else’s household, Unrau was presumably not an original settler of Alexanderwohl. Indeed, we do not even know when he emigrated to Molotschna, although it was likely at the same time as many of the other members of the Przechovka church.

But what does it meant that he was accepted into the household? We have seen this phrase before, for example, twice with Alexanderwohl 14. No sources thus far consulted explain it, so all we are left with are questions: Does the phrase mean that one family took in another, perhaps a landless family whom they knew or to whom they were related? If so, does the phrase signify an act of charity or the renting of quarters to boarders? Was being accepted into the household the same as living in the same house, or was it more a matter of association than cohabitation? To phrase the question differently, are we to assume that every family who emigrated from Prussia to Alexanderwohl in the early 1820s received a Wirtschaft? If not, how were the landless families counted in the census, since families are recorded according to their Wirtschaften? For now, these questions must remain unanswered.

But back to the business at hand: Who was the founding settler of Alexanderwohl 16? The evidence before us leads us to complicate the question a little. From a legal standpoint, that is, ownership, it seems highly likely that Johann Ratzlaff (the second male listed) was the founding settler. After all, he is the one who received a government loan “for building a house and establishing the household” (Rempel 2007, 176).

However, the listing of Johann’s father-in-law Benjamin Buller first, at the head of the household, might (might!) reflect a social reality of the elder being considered the founder of Alexanderwohl 16, even though he was not the legal owner of it. To my knowledge, there are no extant election records between 1821 and 1830, the year of Benjamin’s death. If we knew which of the two was authorized to cast the Wirtschaft’s vote, we would have our answer. In the absence of such evidence, it is safest to identify the landowner as the legal founder, thus Johann Peter Ratzlaff, son-in-law to our ancestor Benjamin Heinrich Buller.

Although Ratzlaff is not listed in the Przechovka church book, he was almost certainly a member of that church, given the association of the surname Ratzlaff with the church and the fact that he married a member of the church (Benjamin Buller’s daughter Katharina/Trincke). Consequently, we will count him as another Przechovka founding settler of Alexanderwohl.

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	?????
14	Heinrich Peter Unrau	86839	PCB 1149; emigrated 1819
15	Jacob Jacob Buller	5587	PCB 1139; emigrated 1819; settled 1822
16	Johann Peter Ratzlaff	60394	Przechovka; son-in-law to Benjamin Heinrich Buller

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.

Alexanderwohl 14

Finally we arrive at the single direct ancestor of our family line (or so we believe; see the series Searching for Benjamin’s Father in December 2017 and January 2018) who lived in Alexanderwohl: Benjamin Heinrich Buller. To recap briefly (see the chart here), our family line can be traced back to George Buller and Dina Thoms as follows:

George + Dina > Hans > Heinrich > Benjamin Heinrich > Benjamin Benjamin > David > Peter D > Peter P > Grandpa Chris

The name highlighted in red, Benjamin Heinrich, is the primary focus of this post.

As mentioned in the last Alexanderwohl post, the Mennonite Heritage Centre has created an English translation of the 1835 Molotschna census that we can consult. To be clear, this is not the original census, only a translation of it. Nevertheless, the translation is laid out like the original, so it is worthwhile to look at a scan of a page in the English translation.

Wirtschaft 16

The page below is the one that displays the entry for the plot where Benjamin Heinrich Buller lived.

As we have seen before, family members are listed on facing pages, males on the left and females on the right. Notice also that each family is associated with a particular Wirtschaft; this page contains the information for Wirtschaften 16, 17, and 18. For ease of reference, we will enlarge the information for Wirtschaft 16, beginning with the male side.

Each page is numbered, and the date of the census is entered for each village. Beyond that, the census includes valuable information. The column labeled Mennonite includes not only the names of all the males who lived at Alexanderwohl 16 but also the important note that the first one (Benjamin) settled in the year 1820. We suspected that from the emigration records examined in the Searching for Benjamin’s Father series, but this confirms it.

The column following records the person’s status at the time of the last census. Neither Benjamin nor any of the other residents were in Molotschna at that time (1816), so the census notes that they arrived after that census. Most important is the following column, which reports the date of departure from the previous location. In this case the “departure” is Benjamin’s death, which is recorded as taking place in 1830. Because Benjamin was deceased, no age was recorded for him.

Two final matters are worth noting with regard to Benjamin. First, his name is recorded as Benjamin Benjamin, not Benjamin Heinrich. Why is this? As Glenn Penner explains (see here), it seems that the 1835 census often repeats a deceased man’s first name as his middle name, presumably because whoever was supplying the census information did not know the deceased’s actual middle name. This may strike us as odd, but we should bear in mind the effects of time and distance: the people supplying the information in 1835 were separated by nearly 900 miles and several decades from their former lives, and they may not have remembered or ever known the name of their father’s father; in such cases, the census clerk apparently repeated a person’s first name as his middle one. Thus, although this person is listed as Benjamin Benjamin, we can safely conclude that he was actually Benjamin Heinrich.

Second, it is interesting to observe that Benjamin is listed first for Alexanderwohl 16, as though he was the head of the household. Was he? Earlier (here) we suggested that Benjamin’s son-in-law Johann Peter Ratzlaff was the head of the household. Our evidence was the Russian settlement record that states that Ratzlaff received “financial aid for the purchase of 1 horse at a sum of 50 rubles, and also for building a house and establishing the household, at a sum of 589 rubles” (Rempel 2007, 176). 

Does the listing of Benjamin first call our earlier supposition into question? Probably not. The fact that Ratzlaff was given the government loan to establish a household would seem to tip the balance in favor of him being the head of household, although I must also confess ignorance of the legal and social conventions at play. Was it possible for one member of a household (a parent) to “own” the Wirtschaft and for another to be responsible for the loan on it? Was a family elder living in a household owned by a younger family member still considered the head of that household? What exactly was the relation, if any, between ownership and one’s role as head of household? These questions, as well as the matter of how villages were laid out and how and under what conditions plots were assigned and later transferred, are sorely in need of thorough study.

Before we veer too far from the task at hand, we return our focus to Alexanderwohl 16. The index to the census lists three individuals:

Benjamin Benjamin (b. ca.-)
Ratzlaff, Johann Peter (b. ca.1780)
Unrau, Benjamin Goerg (b. ca.1800)

We will pick up with these three in the following post, as we continue to identify Alexanderwohl’s founding settlers.

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.

Alexanderwohl 13

We are nearing the halfway point in our reconstruction; we are also drawing closer to the Wirtschaft in which our own Benjamin Buller (father of Benjamin, father of David, father of Peter D, and so on) lived out the last years of his life.

Most significant, this post also marks a dramatic shift in our approach, since, thanks to the Mennonite Heritage Centre (see here), we now have access to an English translation of the full 1835 census. John Richert wrote previously that everything became clearer once he secured a copy of the census translation that the Centre distributes. I see what he means. Instead of guessing what the index to the census might represent, we can now see the actual census, which will reduce significantly the number of lingering questions that we have typically had. We see the difference with the very first Wirtschaft of this post.

Wirtschaft 14

The index to the 1835 census lists three names for Alexanderwohl 14:

Kirsch, Kornelius Kornelius (b. ca.1797)
Hiebert, Klaas Sacharij (b. ca.1802)
Unrau, Heinrich Peter (b. ca.1796)

The ages of the three men in 1821, ranging from nineteen to twenty-five, would permit any one of them to have been an original settler. Of the three surnames, however, only Unrau is associated with the Przechovka church (PCB: 1149). Nevertheless, we should work through the evidence before we jump to any conclusions.

Fortunately, the evidence of the census itself leaves little doubt as to which of the three is the most likely candidate for being an original Alexanderwohl settler. Heinrich Peter Unrau is not only listed as head of household for Alexanderwohl 14, but his year of emigration is also listed as 1819. This accords with what we find in the emigration records: the visa that gave Heinrich Unrau (GM: 86839) and his wife permission to emigrate was dated 20 July 1819 (Rempel 2007, 136), a full year before the presumed date of the main migration of Przechovka church members. What we know of the birth of the couple’s children (the first was born in 1820) is consistent with the facts of the visa, that is, that only husband and wife made the trek.

Although there is, unfortunately, no Russian record of where the couple settled, we can safely assume that it was Alexanderwohl, given not only the evidence of the 1835 census (they are located in Alexanderwohl and nowhere else) but also the listing of Heinrich and Anna Schmidt Unruh early in the Alexanderwohl church book (ACB: 45 and 46), which strongly suggests that they were associated with that village and church early on. Thus, we can reasonably conclude that Heinrich and Anna were the original settlers of Alexanderwohl 14. 

So how do we explain the listing of the two other men? Here is where the census provides details that the index cannot. The entry for the Unrau household adds two comments after their family members are listed. The first states that Klaas Zacharias Hiebert (GM: 60369) was “accepted into the [Unrau] household,” then notes that he transferred in 1832 to Lichtfelde, another Molotschna village. Turning to the Lichtfelde census entries, we see him listed at Wirtschaft 19 with a note that he transferred there from Alexanderwohl in 1822 (the two dates do not match in the translation, which means that the scans of the original need to be consulted). The second comment adds that “also accepted into the household” were Kornelius Kirsch, his wife Elisabeth, and his three children.

In other words, Hiebert and Kirsch are located at Alexanderwohl 14 only as residents of the Unrau household; these two were not original settlers on their own. Interestingly, the Unraus lived in Alexanderwohl until the entire church emigrated to the United States in 1874. Both spent their final years in Kansas, where they lie in rest. Klaas Hiebert, on the other hand, seems to have been a bit of a wanderer, since, according to GRANDMA, his children were born in at least four different villages.

Wirtschaft 15

We return to the Bullers with Alexanderwohl 15, specifically:

Buller, Jakob Jakob (b. ca.1795)

The 1821 age is right (twenty-six), and the name is obviously appropriate for the Przechovka church, so it is not surprising that he is listed in the church book (PCB: 1139). Another sign pointing toward Jacob Buller being a founding settler is the fact that his father Jacob Peter was the original settler of Alexanderwohl 9 (see here). However, here the matter becomes complicated. The index to the 1835 census lists Jacob Jacob twice:

Buller, Jakob Jakob (b. ca.1795): Franztal 5
Buller, Jakob Jakob (b. ca.1795): Alexanderwohl 15

What, then, does the census itself report? With the Franztal 5 listing, the household is headed first by Peter Andreas Richert, then by Peter Peter Janzen below him; Jacob Buller is listed as “accepted into the household.” Several additional notations help us to propose a reasonable chain of events. First, the census indicates that Peter Richert (who was a member of the Przechovka group) emigrated to Russia in 1819 and died in 1821. Second, Peter Janzen is said to have moved from the village Rudnerweide to Franztal in 1822. Third, Jacob Buller is reported to have moved from Franztal to Alexanderwohl in 1822.

Putting all the pieces together, one may reasonably suggest that the two Przechovka church members Peter Richert and Jacob Buller were part of the same group emigrating to Russia in 1819 (for Richert, see Rempel 2007, 153). Peter Richert became owner of Franztal 5, and Jacob Buller joined Richert’s household, perhaps waiting to secure his own Wirtschaft. Richert died in 1821, while Buller was still living with him, and Franztal 5 was sold/transferred to Peter Janzen. Suddenly Jacob Buller needed a place to live. Fortunately, in the interim his father Jacob Peter Buller had settled in Alexanderwohl 9, and he presumably encouraged his son Jacob Jacob to join him and other members of the Przechovka church in Alexanderwohl.

The fact that no other resident is listed for Alexanderwohl 15 gives us warrant, I think, to consider Jacob Jacob the founding settler of that Wirtschaft. We are told that at least eight Wirtschaften in Alexanderwohl were left unoccupied in 1820, after the first wave of settlers; thus, Alexanderwohl 15 may well have been vacant when Jacob Jacob decided to move there in 1822. Consequently, we will list Jacob Jacob as the founding settler of Alexanderwohl 15, even though that was not the first Molotschna village in which he lived.

Before we end this post, however, we should briefly introduce the village in which Jacob Jacob first lived. Franztal, which was located on the far eastern side of Molotschna, was established in 1820, just like Alexanderwohl. The Franztal community report (see here for the German) contains several key facts: (1) the original fifteen families who settled Franztal came from the Schwetz region near Kulm in West Prussia (aus dem Kreise Schwez bei Kulm in Westpreussen), which includes the area in which the Przechovka church was located (modern Chełmno [Kulm] is less than 5 miles from the location of the Przechovka church); (2) Franztal’s original founders faced significant challenges with its location and moved all or part of the village twice in the first year just to have access to water; (3) the founders initially wished to name the village Pschuchowka (= Przechovka), but government officials objected to giving a Polish name to this Russian village. We will certainly want to revisit Franztal to discover who else from Przechovka settled or lived there, but we end with this interesting observation: the first Molotschna village in which a Mennonite Buller lived may well have been Franztal, not one of those villages that we have previously suspected.

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	?????
14	Heinrich Peter Unrau	86839	PCB 1149; emigrated 1819
15	Jacob Jacob Buller	5587	PCB 1139; emigrated 1819; settled 1822

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.