Litke family

Susanna (Wedel) Ratzlaff’s maternal grandmother was Susanna Litke.  Unlike most of the other names found in my Ratzlaff genealogy, Litke is originally not a Prussian low-german name.  Instead, the Litke (also spelled Lichti or Luetke) name is of Swiss Mennonite origin making this family unique among my Ratzlaff ancestors (http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/L540ME.html/?searchterm=lichti).  The Litkes who married into the Nickel family in Volhynia may have been descended from Swiss Mennonites in the Volhynia area.  It is known that Litkes were among the Swiss Mennonite families who may have settled in the Podolia area in the late 1700s (http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/volhynia_ukraine/?searchterm=volhynia).

Podolia borders Volhynia to the south; in fact the traditional Podolia-Volhynia border may only be about 30 miles to the south of Ostrog.  The Litkes may have been Amish in origin and may have come from Montbeliard, France.  In 1791 a group of Mennonites, including some by the name Lichti, left Montbeliard, which lies just west of the French-Swiss border, and soon settled in Urzulin and Michelsdorf, about 30 miles northeast of Lublin (Lublin is in geographical Poland, southeast of Warsaw).  The bulk of the Michelsdorf-Urzulin colony moved into Volhynia and founded the village of Eduardsdorf around 1807.  Eduardsdorf lay about 15 miles west-southwest of Dubno in Volhynia.  Others left Michelsdorf-Urzulin in 1837 and settled in Horodyszcze, Zabara and Waldheim, near Korzec, Volhynia (Korzec is also spelled Korez or Korecs). 

(http://www.swissmennonite.org/feature_archive/2003/200305.pdf).

(http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jvoran/voran/migration.htm).

This map shows the western Russian border states in the very early 20^th century.  Note Lublin to the west (in the Russian State of Poland) and Ostrog in the center (in the Russian State of Volhynia).  Northwest of Ostrog is Dubno and northeast of Ostrog is Korez (Korzec).  South of Volhynia is the Russian State of Podolia:

This map shows the area surrounding Lublin in the early 20^th century.  Lublin can be seen to the west, Michelsdorf and Urzulin to the east:

This map from the 1930s shows Eduardsdorf (Edwardowka) near Dubno, in Volhynia:

This map, also from the 1930s, shows Horodyszcze near Korez (Korzec), Volhynia.  The Mennonite village of Kolowert can also be seen.  Zabara would appear just southwest of Korez, but that village is not marked on this map:

Susanna’s Litke ancestors may have been among these Swiss Mennonites in Volhynia.  Living in Eduardsdorf, Horodyszcze, or Zabara (as Jacob Ratzlaff’s family did), perhaps they then moved into the Karolswalde villages as those villages held the largest population of Mennonites in the area at the time. 

Tobias Unruh’s baptism record shows a fairly complete list of the people in the Karolswalde villages in the mid 19^th century.  The record begins when Tobias Unruh became elder in 1854 until the majority of the villagers left Volhynia in 1874.  So for this 20 year period, we have listed all the villagers of baptism age, and their fathers, from all the Karolswalde villages including Zabara (Dossidorf) and Heinrichsdorf.  Very few villagers in the mid 18^th century would not have been baptized.

The baptism record shows four Litkes (spelled Luetcke on the list).  David, Elscke and Peter were children of Hein (Heinrich) Luetke and were baptized 1855-1857.  Helena was the daughter of Johann Luetke and was baptized in 1871.  These baptismal candidates were all baptized in different locations around the villages.  Susanna (Wedel) Ratzlaff’s mother, Katarina (Nickel) Wedel was baptized in 1844.  Susanna’s grandmother, Susanna Litke, could be sister to this Hein Luetke (Litke).