Ratzlaffs of Przechowko I

Starting with the youngest of the original Ratzlaff’s grandson’s first, Jacob 35841 was born in 1704 and died in 1758.  His male descendants in the Przechowko Churchbook look like this:

				Heinrich 106008, b 1840, born in Mototschna	no children listed
			Jacob 47841, 1799-1890
				Jacob 8816, 1844-1877, immgrated to US	documented family in Marion Co
			Peter 47686, 1803-1803
		Jacob 47820, 1765-1830
			Heinrich 47842, 1805-1805
			Benjamin 13310, 1802-1802
			Peter 25673, born 1824 in the Molotschna, d 1887 in Minnesota	children all born in Molotschna
		Hinrich 47821, b 1767	Peter 61716, b 1815, no children or spouse listed	not likely, dates not right
	Jacob 43098
		Hans 47824, b 1773, no children or spouse listed	not likely, no children, dates not right
		Peter 47825, b 1775	Jacob 47895, b 1812 at Klein Konopat, Prussia, no children listed	everything's right except the location
Jacob 35841			Peter 47689, born 1807 in Przechowka, no children or spouse listed	not likely, name is wrong
		Adam 47687, born 1872, baptized in Jeziorka
			Heinrich 47690, born 1810 in Przechowko, no spouse or children listed	name and date are correct
		Jacob 47812, b 1765, no surviving male children
	Hinrich 47809
			Peter 47898, 1813-1886, b in Beckersitz, died in Moundridge, emigrated 1874	lots of children - well established in Molotschna, emigrated in 1874
		Peter 47815
			Jakob 275327, b1828-1879, died in Harvey Co, born in Molotschna
			Heinrich 61581, b c1831, born in Molotschna, probably died young as no children or spouse listed

In analyzing the descendant trees of the Przechowko Ratzlaffs, I’m going to color code the names to help identify the ones who might be my ancestor.  Those colored in red are Ratzlaffs who are certainly not the right person.  Yellow are maybes, and greens are very real possibilities.  Those colored purple are Ratzlaffs who certainly moved to the Molotschna Colony, and therefore very unlikely to be the right ones.

On the above tree, there are several colored red who died before having children or who arrived in America too early to be my ancestors.  There are a couple yellows, including Peter 61716, Hans 47824 and Peter 47689.  The two Peters here are unlikely as they would both be contemporaries of Heinrich; they couldn’t be his father as they were both born in the early 1800s.  Hans 47824 is possible.  If he would have had children, the churchbook probably would have listed them.  The churchbook becomes more sketchy in the 1800s, but it’s very thorough with the earlier generations.  It’s probable that he didn’t have any children and therefore he’s out of the running.

Jacob 47895 and Heinrich 47690 are real possibilities though.  Both were born in the right time frame and obviously Heinrich’s name is right.  It’s also possible that my Heinrich’s name was actually Jacob, so both of these look good.  GRANDMA indicates that my Heinrich lived in Volhynia though, and both of these resided right near Schwetz, West Prussia.  The fact that the churchbook lists no children for either of them could mean one of two things.  1) They actually had no children, or 2) They moved to some outlying area where they lost firsthand contact with Przechowko.  The Neumark area or Volhynia would have been just such an outlying area.  However, the Neumark villages were being settled in the mid-1700s while both of these Ratzlaffs were born very near Przechowko.  While Jacob 47895 and Heinrich 47690 are very real possibilities, their geographical locations aren't quite right.