Mennonites began to inhabit the village of Przechówko around the year 1600. They expanded to occupy many nearby villages on both sides of the Vistula (Deutsch Konopat, Glugowko, Beckersitz, Schonsee, Dorposch, Ostrower Kaempe, etc). They formed daughter congregations at Jeziorki, Brenkenhofswalde/Franzthal, Sady, Deutsch Michalin. From those daughters, additional settlements were established in Volyn (Karolswalde, Antonowka, etc). From Przechówko itself, Franzthal and Alexanderwohl in the Molotschna Colony were established, others from Volyn established Waldheim in Molotschna and then the Brenkenhofswalde/Franzthal folks established Gnadenfeld (Molotschna). From there, descendants of these groups established congregations across the world. This expansion and establishment of daughter congregations is unique for Przechówko across the Low German Mennonite world; none of the other original 14 Low German Polish-Prussian Mennonite congregations established daughter congregations in this way. Thus, we have family names today in places like Alexanderwohl and Lone Tree, which can easily be traced all the way back into the 17th century to the original village.
The Przechówko church record, compilation of which began in the 1780s, is today in the vault of the Alexanderwohl Church in Goessel, Kansas. These are the surnames, along with frequency, listed in the book (note: I'm writing this article quickly so I will not standardize surnames. Inconsistencies will occur and don't be put off by this. For instance, in the churchbook, the surname Voht is spelled differently to how the descendants spell it today - Voth - but indeed it is the same family. Other examples: Nachtigal/Nightengale, Köhn/Koehn, Gädert/Gaeddert, Böse/Boese, Unrau/Unruh)
These are the surnames from the original record:
We can see how the names of the families in the groups evolved by comparing the original names with subsequent lists. At the time of his death, John D Richert was working on a Neumark directory - essentially a list and identification of those living in the Mennonite communities at Brenkenhofswalde, Franzthal, and Neu Dessau. Unfortunately, John's list may never become complete now but he did share a working copy with me and we can easily look at the surnames. This was the largest daughter community to Przechowko prior to the migrations into the Russian Empire and it's interesting to see how the list evolves. Many of the additions are Lutheran folks joining the Mennonites in Brandenburg. The core group of names, Voth, Unrau, Ratzlaff, Schmidt, etc, are similar to the above list. The yellow highlighted names are additions to the originals from Przechowko:
We can continue the exercise by looking at subsequent immigrations lists from the two largest daughter communities in the Russian Empire: Volyn and Molotschna. These are the names found on the 1874-5 immigrant ships coming from Volyn. Again, yellow highlighted names are additions to the original Przechowko names. And again, the core group of Unruhs, Schmidts, Koehns, etc, are still similar to the Przechowko list. Several names such as Harms, Schroder, and Kliewert are Frisian Mennonite names from Michalin.
Finally, these are the names found on the 1874 Cimbria and Teutonia - the Molotschna Alexanderwohl and Franzthal group. Again, yellow highlighted names are additions to the original Przechowko names. The Alexanderwohl/Franthal-ers were joined by a healthy number of Frisian Mennonites from other villages in the Molotschna Colony. But again, the core group of Schmidts, Unruhs, Ratzlaff, Bullers, and Voths, remain similar to the original Przechowko list. (we should also note that some names here, like Jantzen and Duerksen, were mostly Frisans from Tragheimerweide and not Old Flemish from Przechowko)
So, what happened when they reached North America? For instance, we can look at the folks at Alexanderwohl like this. I’ve polled 150 individuals from the 1983 Alexanderwohl churchbook – that’s about 20% of the congregation at that time. 34% of those surveyed in 1983 still had those original Przechowko surnames and a whopping 87% of those surveyed had ancestors found in the village of Przechowko or at the Przechowko church. 52% had either 3 or 4 grandparents with Przechowko ancestry. So, a great many of the congregants in 1983 - almost 400 years after the birth of the congregation – could still trace their ancestry back to the very first congregants.
We could do a very similar study with the congregants at Lone Tree, near Canton, Kansas, with even more shocking results. From the 2020 membership list at Lone Tree, I surveyed about 55% and found that 94% of those surveyed had Przechowko ancestry. 79% had either 3 or 4 grandparents with Przechowko ancestry. So again, in the year 2020, an estimated 94% of the Lone Tree members could all trace their ancestry back – more than 400 years – to the same place and to the same group of people.
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