1811 Elbing census online

I just found the 1811 Elbing census online at the Mennonite Library and Archives (Bethel College, North Newton, Kans.) web site.  They were scanned by Glenn Penner.  Previously I had ordered LDS film #1344433, where it is also found.  But the digital images at the MLA web site are better quality; and most importantly for a Mennonite, they are FREE!

Here is the page with my 5-greats-grandfather Gerhard Fast #660202 (1739-1828) at age 72 in Neustaedterwald.  (I think the age of 75 that is given is wrong.)

Gerhard Fast household, 31 December 1811, Neustetterwald village #17, Elbing Territory census, West Prussia, Zesp. I/10, Nr. 44, Archiwum Panstwowe w Gdansku, Gdansk, Poland, p. 28.  Accessed online at https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/cong_301/Nachweisung1812/IMG_2050.JPG on 31 August 2016.

NB:  The MLA web site calls it the 1812 census - it was taken at the end of 1811 for the 1812 year.

How Do You Know What to Believe?

The Grandma database said that my great-great-grandmother, Katharina Bergman #7126 (1834-1916) died in Jansen, Nebraska.  She was a member of the Kleine Gemeinde church, which had lived there until 1908, when they moved to Meade, Kansas.  Since the church moved en masse, I doubted that she would have stayed behind, especially since she was an elderly lady of 74 when they moved.  So I was skeptical of her death location in Grandma.  On the other hand, she could have been on a trip back to Jansen to visit relatives when she died, so you never know.

Katharina Bergman, Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry, CD-ROM, version 6 (Fresno:  California Mennonite Historical Society, 2013), individual #7126.

My grandmother also kept a family register in which she recorded the death of Katharina Bergman, who was her grandmother.  The entry (original below) says, “1916 25 Nov ist Groszmutter gestorben bei Jak. Reimers Meade Kan (25 Nov 1916 Grandmother died at Jacob Reimers, Meade, Kansas).”   

Margaretha H. Reimer, Freundschaft Register Buch [Relatives Register Book], (Fowler, Kansas: unpublished, begun in 1923) 6.  Original held by Anna (Siemens) Fast, Hillsboro, Kansas.

Since my grandmother was 21 years old at the time and since her grandmother died at Jacob Reimers, her uncle’s house, she surely knew where it had happened.  But I wanted some more proof.  So I ordered her death certificate from the State of Kansas.

And here is the death certificate from Logan Township, Meade County, Kansas:

Katherina Barkmann death certificate, died 25 November 1916, dated 27 November 1916, no. 60219, Office of Vital Statistics, Topeka, Kansas.

It’s pretty hard to dispute the location of death on a contemporary death certificate.  So my grandmother’s family register was right – Katharina Bergman did die near Meade, Kansas, and NOT near Jansen, Nebraska.  I have no idea how the wrong death place got into Grandma.

Some lessons to draw from this - 

1) It is critical to check the original source.  

2) We need to evaluate the likely accuracy of sources.  A secondary database such as Grandma is only as accurate as the unknown person who supplied the information.   My grandmother's family register - since she was likely a witness of the event - is a good source.  But a contemporary death certificate signed by a doctor and an informant is a very strong source.  

3) It pays to think about whether a piece of information is reasonable or not - in this case it was unlikely that an elderly widow would have stayed behind when the whole church moved.

Using the 1811 Elbing, West Prussia, Census

In late 1811, a census was taken of the Elbing region where many Mennonites lived.  This city was under a special administrative regime because in the late 1600s, the King of Poland had used it as collateral for a loan from the Duke of Prussia.  This led to a centuries-long dispute about whether the loan had been repaid and whether the Prussian dukes (later kings) could take the city’s revenues to repay the loan.  In 1811, the city was still under a special administration as a result.  Thus, a separate census was taken in 1811.

My 5-greats-grandfather, Gerhard Fast #660202 (1739-1828), had five siblings whom I have identified, and I am trying to piece together their descendants.  One of those siblings was Klaas Fast #706529 (ABT 1745-1820), and he had a son Gerhard #117515 (ABT 1774-1830) who lived in the village of Fürstenauerweide, which in the Elbing region.  Someone had entered the birth dates of the younger Gerhard’s six children from the Fürstenau Lutheran church book, and I found the death dates for five of those children who died young in the same church book.  (Imagine how shattering it must have been to lose five of six children before the age of nine.)  Here is how the family looked:

Gerhard Klaas Fast, Genealogical Registry and Database of Mennonite Ancestry, CD-ROM, version 6 as updated by author (Fresno:  California Mennonite Historical Society, 2013), individual #117515.

Then I got to wondering if he was in the 1811 Elbing census, which was taken near the end of 1811, so I checked Adalbert Goertz’extraction.  And I found him as expected in Fürstenauerweide:

Gerhard Fast household #10, 31 December 1811, Fuerstenauerweide village #4, Elbing Territory census, West Prussia, Zesp. I/10, Nr. 44, Archiwum Panstwowe w Gdansku, Gdansk, Poland, n. p.  Extraction accessed http://mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/elbing2.htm on 26 August 2016.

I’m sure it is him because the family data matches.  Notice that no wife is listed – there is only a blank in the space where the age of the wife would be shown.  His first wife, Helena Wiebe died in October 1811, so it fits that she is not listed.  Three children’s ages are listed – 10, 8, and 3 years.  He had three children still living, Helena, Nicolaus, and Katharina, whose ages were 9, 6, and 4 years based on their exact birth dates from the Lutheran church book.  Remember that ages in census records were not very exact back then, so this fits well enough.  Two of those children, Helena and Nicolaus, died in late December 1811, but they are still listed in the census.  Since the census was taken near the end of 1811, the family information fits the census.

The census also adds another useful piece of information – he was an Arbeitsman, a laborer.  This means that there is not much point in searching for land records in Fürstenauerweide.  And it also tells us that they were poor.  In 1819, Gerhard Fast and his second wife Barbara Isaac and his remaining daughter Katharina emigrated to Russia, to start a new life as a landowner in the village of Rudnerweide, Molotschna Colony.

Gerhard Fast emigration, 1819, household #23, Emigration records, Benjamin Heinrich Unruh, Die niederländisch-niederdeutschen Hintergründe der mennonitischen Ostwanderungen im 16., 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (Karlsruhe:  Heinrich Scheider, 1954), p. 367.  Accessed on digital copy from California Mennonite Historical Society, Fresno, California.

Looking in the WRONG Village (Part III)

See Part I and Part II for the beginning of this story.

In the previous posts in this series, I explained how I found my 5-greats-grandparents, Martin Wiens and Maria Loepp, in the West Prussian land records.  I wanted to flesh out their lives as much as possible, so there are a few other places to look for information.

First, the 1772 census.  When Prussia seized a large piece of Polish territory in 1772, including the Gross Werder and other areas where many Mennonites lived, they immediately conducted a census to establish tax liabilities for all the inhabitants.  When I checked the village of Fürstenauerweide, where Martin and Maria Wiens owned land, I found them – sort of.  There were three heads of household named “Wientz,” but no first names or the number of family members were listed.  I checked the index for the 1772 census and found no other Martin Wiens, so I knew he must be one of these three.

1772 census with three Wiens households.  Source:  _____ Wientz household, 1772-1773, households #3, #5, or #9, Contributions Catastrum, Fürstenauer Weÿde village #24, Elbingschen Niederung, West Prussia, II. HA, Abt. 9, Materien, Tit. XCIII, Nr. 9, Bd. 3, p. 109, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany.

In the 1776 census, there are three Wiens heads of household listed, but this time their first names are given – Arend, Jacob, and Martin.  (Presumably, these are the same three Wienses as in 1772, but we cannot be sure without checking each one individually since one could have died and another married and started his own household.)  It’s very likely that this Martin Wiens is the one I’m looking for.

Source:  Martin Wiens household, 1776 Special Consignation of Mennonite families, Fuerstenauerwiede village, West Prussia, II. HA, Abt. 9, Materien, Tit. CIX, Nr. 1, Vol. 1, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany.  Accessed online at http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/1776MasterV5.pdf on 13 August 2016.

And on his extraction of the 1776 census, Glenn Penner has added a serendipitous note to Martin Wiens “1739-99 (Luth/Fuerstenau).”  He kindly sent me a copy of Martin Wiens’ death record from the Fürstenau Lutheran church book, which showed that he died on 5 March 1799 in Fürstenauerweide at the age of 68 years, 4 months, and was buried on 11 March.  From his age at death, I could calculate that he was born in ABT Dec 1730.

Martin Wiens death record.  I have underlined "Martin Wiens," "5 Mart: (5 March)," and "68 Jahr 4 Monat (68 years 4 months)."  Source:  Martin Wiens death record, 5 March 1799, decedent #5, Fürstenau Lutheran death register, 1774-1819, Fürstenau, West Prussia, digital copy from Glenn Penner, Guelph, Ontario.

Finally, I checked the 1789 census of Mennonite landowners, and I found Martin Wiens living in Fürstenauerweide and owning 18 morgens 158 ruten of land (about 26 acres). 

Source:  Mart. Wiens household, line #9, 1789 General-Nachweisung of Mennonite families in Marienwerder Department, Fuerstenauerweide village #35, II. Amt Elbing, West Prussia, II. HA, Abt. 9, Materien, Tit. CIX, Nr. 1, Vol. 1, Ad Nr. 1 vol. 2, Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany.  Accessed at http://mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/1789_Land_Census_West_Prussian_Mennonites.htm on 13 August 2016.

To summarize these three posts on Martin Wiens – I started out being curious why Jacob Barkman was not listed in any of the censuses in Neustӓdterwald, the village where he owned land at the time of his death.  When I checked for his name in the other villages in the 1789 census, I saw that he owned land in the neighboring village, the “wrong” village, of Fürstenauerweide.  When I checked the land records for Fürstenauerweide, I found the land that he owned and that his wife Katharina Wiens had inherited it from her parents Martin Wiens and Maria Loepp when her mother Maria Loepp died.  I had not known of Martin Wiens and Maria Loepp before this.  When I checked for Martin Wiens in the 1772, 1776, and 1789 census, I found him living in Fürstenauerweide in all three.  And a note on the extraction of the 1776 census led me to his death record, which gave his birth date also.  So a little curiosity about Jacob Barkman led to discovering his parents-in-law and quite a bit of information about them!