Ratzlaffs of the Przechowko Mennonite Congregation

As stated earlier, in all likelihood the ancestors of my Ratzlaff family were members of the Przechowko congregation near Schwetz in West Prussia.  Descendants of the Przechowko church formed the congregations in the Neumark which in turn moved into Volhynia and formed the Karolswalde villages.  The Mennonite Church in Leeleva by the early 1900s identified itself with the Alexanderwohl congregation which was basically the Przechowko church in Russia.

My Ratzlaffs probably moved from Przechowko to Neumark to Volhynia and then to America.  During the course of these migrations, records were lost or destroyed.  As a result, linking my Ratzlaff family line with those of Przechowko is very difficult.

The Przechowko Church (http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/P780.html/?searchterm=przechowka) kept very detailed records of its members.  The resulting Przechowko Churchbook (Church Records of the Old Flemish or Gröningen Mennonisten Societaet in Przechowko, West Prussia) is an invaluable source of information.  Scans of the churchbook can be seen here: http://mla.bethelks.edu/metadata/cong_15.php.  In 1784, Jacob Wedel, current elder of the Przechowko Church, compiled the churchbook in order to comply with a royal order by King Frederick William II obliging all churches in Prussia to provide statistics regarding their congregations.  Elders succeeding Jacob Wedel continued the records which were taken with the congregation from West Prussia to South Russia (Alexanderwohl) in 1820 and again to Kansas in 1874.  Soon after 1974, as a commemoration of the centennial of the arrival of the congregation to America, Jacob A Duerksen and his colleagues undertook to translate the churchbook from German to English.  The resulting translation can be purchased from Mennonite bookstores or museums but, unfortunately, is to my knowledge not available online.

There are many Ratzlaffs listed in the Przechowko Churchbook, but one line of them must connect with my Ratzlaff line in some way.   Heinrich Ratzlaff is the earliest Ratzlaff ancestor I know, and his son Jacob (born 1842) represents the earliest date I know for certain.  In an analysis of the Przechowko Churchbook, I will be looking for a Ratzlaff ancestor who may be Heinrich’s father.  The Ratlzaff man I'm looking for would have been born in the mid-1700s (Heinrich's birthdate would have been around 1800).  He also may very well have been listed as living in the Neumark villages of Brenkenhoffswalde, Franzthal or Neu-Dessau.  These villages were settled in the mid-1700s, so it's unlikely that he would remain in the Przechowko area by that time.  It's also extremely unlikely he would have lived in the Molotschna Colony. 

To do this, I'm simply going to take all the Ratzlaff males from the Przechowko Churchbook, put them into family trees, and look for the one who fits the bill.  I’ll double check the data in the Churchbook with the information available from GRANDMA in an attempt to capture all the male Ratzlaff names from Przechowko.  I believe my ancestor has to be one of them.

The first Ratzlaff was born somewhere in the neighborhood of the year 1600 and was a soldier from Sweden.  The Churchbook lists him as having had only 1 son, Hans, born around the year 1630.  Hans had 5 sons: Berent, Hans, Tobias, Adam and Jacob.  I’ll break my analysis of the Przechowko Ratzlaffs down between the 5 grandsons of the original Ratzlaffs.  Here’s a simple tree showing the original Ratzlaff, his son Hans, and his 5 grandsons.  The numbers beside the names are the serial numbers from the GRANDMA database:

		Berent 32092, 1660-1717
		Hans 36105, b 1661
Ratzlaff 36101, b c1600??	Hans 36103, c1630-c1689
		Tobias 36106, b 1692
		Adam 36111, 1700-1758
		Jacob 35841, 1704-1758

. 

Note that there is a large gap between the birthdates of Hans 36105 and Tobias 36106.  There were also several sisters in this family who would have filled in this gap.  Unfortunately though, I will not be tracking the females since they weren't carriers of the name Ratzlaff.  If and when I can determine who my Przechowko Ratzlaff ancestors were I can go back and construct trees which include the names of the females.