Andreas Ratzlaff (b1869) forestry service

When Jacob, Anna, and the rest of the Ratzlaff party left Volhynia in 1893, two of the oldest children stayed behind in Russia.  Eva was married in 1885 to Johann Nachtigal and their residence was just outside Leeleva.  It’s hard to tell where their house stood, but I believe it’s probably marked at the lower left-hand corner of the map of Leeleva.  Could it have been closer to Menziliski then to Leeleva?  Eva, Johann and their one surviving child born prior to 1893, Tobias, remained in Volhynia.

Andreas also stayed behind in 1893.  Andreas was born in 1869, but apparently there is a discrepancy about this birth date.  Most sources give the date as 12/23/1869 but GRANDMA indicates that another source gives the date as 11/11/1869.  It’s possible the discrepancy exists because of Russia’s continued use of the Julian Calendar (O.S.) until the year 1917, but I don’t think that’s likely.  While the U.S.A. and most of Western Europe used the Gregorian Calendar (N.S.), Russia stuck to an older system until 1917.  The Gregorian Calendar is several days ahead of the Julian.  For instance, the Russian October Revolution, according to the U.S.A. (Gregorian) Calendar, actually occurred on 11/07/1917.  In Russia, where they were using the Julian Calendar, the revolution occurred on 10/25/1917.  On Andreas’ Russian forestry service paperwork, his birthdate is recorded as 12/23/1869.  The Russians would have used the Julian system when recording this date.  Translation to Gregorian would actually bump that date forward into January, not backward into November.  I feel it’s likely that 12/23/1869 is the correct date in Julian and that this date was never corrected when he moved to the U.S.A.

Regardless of the birthdate, Andreas was born in Leeleva and grew up with the rest of the family until the early 1890s.  In 1891, Andreas was obliged to leave Volhynia to complete his stint with the forestry service.  Forestry service (Forseidienst) for young Mennonite men was completed in lieu of military service (http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/F6717ME.html/?).  According to Andreas’ Forestry Service paperwork, he began his service in 1891 and was away from Volhynia when most of the rest of his family left for U.S.A. in 1893.  He returned in very early 1895.

The cover page of Andreas’ Forestry Service paperwork indicates that his stint began in 1891 (the square to the left) and that he served in the Ratzynskaya Forestry Brigade (the square to the right).  The cicular emblem in the middle indicates the Mennonite Forestry Service.  Each page of this document says “Andreas Ratslaf” or “Andreas Jakobovich Ratzlaf” across the top in a horizontal rectangle. 

This map, from the Mennonite Historical Atlas, shows a forestry camp labeled as Razyn in extreme southern Russia, just north of the City of Kherson.

Unfortunately, the second page of the booklet is missing.  This missing page may have indicated the date that Andreas’ service actually began.  Question number 6 on the third page asks if the bearer has any special skills to which Andreas answers “none”, and question number 7 assigns Andreas to Brigade number 2.

The next two pages deal with personal data.  Andreas indicates that he was born on 23 December 1869, that he’s currently a bachelor, and that he adheres to the Mennonite faith.  These documents are his discharge papers and number 11 indicates that he is being discharged to a) Province: Volhynia, b) District: Ostrog, c) Parish: Kunitsky, and d) Village: Antonovka.  Below is indicated that the document was issued in Odessa on 31 December 1894.  After that are some signatures and some language which indicates that Andreas appeared at the Ostrog Police Station on 17 March, 1895, to enroll into the ranks of reserve workers.

The next page indicates that Andreas was recognized as a citizen of the village of Antonvka and that he personally received these documents on 30 December 1895.  The signature of the parish notary follows and then an illegible handwritten paragraph completes the page.  On the next page of the document, in a different written hand is a sentence that states something like Andreas was given temporary leave from March to August of 1905. 

To summarize then, Andreas was drafted into the Forestry Service in 1891.  He served at the Ratzynskaya  forestry camp, a member of brigade number 2.  He was discharged in Odessa on 12/31/1894 to his home village of Antonovka and appeared at the Ostrog Police Station on 03/17/1895 to enroll into the ranks of reserve workers.  The meaning of the last handwritten line is a bit of a mystery, but he was given temporary leave from March until August of 1905, after which time he would presumably re-enter the ranks of reservists.

Interestingly, Andreas was married to Susanna Wedel on February 17, 1895, which would have been only about a month after his return from service in Ratzynskaya.

To give some perspective of where Andreas was stationed during his Forestry Service, here’s a map of the Ukraine in the 1880s.  Andreas had a journey of about 470 miles from his home near Ostrog to the camp at Ratzynskaya, which was about 15 miles or so north of Kherson.  Other young Mennonite men in the camp would have come from the Molotschna Colony, which lay 180 miles to the east of Kherson.  Andreas received his discharge papers in Odessa, which is 125 miles west of Kherson.  In the 1880s, Odessa was the 3^rd most populous city in Russia and the major administrative center of the southern areas of the Empire.  On the map below, Andreas’s home near Ostrog is marked with an H, the Forestry Camp is marked with an F, and the Molotschna Colony is marked with an M.

I haven't yet been able to find exactly where Ratzynskaya was.  Marked by a green box on this Soviet map from the 1940s is the general area where the camp must have been.  Kherson can be seen at the very bottom just right of center: