Leeleva's ties to Alexanderwohl

The Leeleva (Lileva) Mennonite Church was listed in 19^th and early 20^th century Russian Mennonite publications.  Heinrich Dirks lists Leeleva in his Statistik der Mennonitengemeinden in Russland Ende 1905 which was an appendix to the Anhang zum Mennonitischen Jahrbuche 1904/05 which was published in Gnadenfeld, Molotschna, in 1905.  P.M. Friesen also listed Leeleva in his Die Alt-Evangelische Mennonitische Brüderschaft in Russland (1789-1910) im Rahmen der mennonitischen Gesamtgeschichte which was published in Halbstadt, Molotschna, in 1911.  Both Dirks and Friesen were leading scholars in late the 19^th /early 20^th century Russian Mennonite community.  Dirks listed Johann Janz as the leading minister, Johann Nachtigall as co-minister, and Johann Dekkert as deacon.  Houses on the Leeleva map indicate these names.  As Abe J. Unruh tells us in his book The Helpless Poles, by the early 1900s, Leeleva became the last Mennonite village of the Karolswalde villages.  As the villagers left Volhynia for America, the ones who stayed behind moved to Leeleva. http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/lileva_mennonite_church_rivnens2019ka_oblast2019/?searchterm=alexanderwohl

Both Dirks and Friesen list the Leeleva congregation as a branch of the Alexanderwohl congregration, the bulk of which by the time of these publications (1905 and 1911) was located in Goessel, KS.  Previously the Alexanderwohl congregation and village had been located in the central area of the Molotschna Colony. 

The fact that these contemporary Mennonite scholars, and probably the villagers themselves, would associate Leeleva with Alexanderwohl is another important clue regarding where our Ratzlaff ancestors originated.  We know our Ratzlaffs were in Leeleva and the Karolswalde area, but we don’t know first-hand how they came to be there.  We also know that there were plenty of Ratzlaffs in the Przechowka congregation in West Prussia.  The problem lies in linking our Ratzlaffs with the Przechowka Ratzlaffs.  

It’s a well-known fact that the Alexanderwohl congregation is a daughter congregation of Przechowka.  http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/contents/A44239.html.  These Mennonite groups tended to stick together as much as possible and largely migrated as groups.  Przechowka spawned several daughter congregations, including the groups in German Neumark, and Deutsche Wymysle and Deutsche Kazun in Poland.  The bulk of the Przechowka group, however, founded Alexanderwohl (and also Gnadenfeld) in the Molotschna. 

The fact that the Leeleva Church associated itself with Alexanderwohl indicates that the two groups had a common heritage.  Alexanderwohl having clear ties with Przechowka indicates that Leeleva has ties with Przechowka as well.  By extension, the Ratzlaffs of Leeleva, then, also have ties with the Ratzlaffs of Przechowka.

Other churches in the U.S.A. closely associated with the Karolswalde group (and Leeleva) include the Emmanuel Mennonite Church near Moundridge, KS, the congregations of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite (Holdeman) in the Canton, KS, area (including the Lone Tree Congregation), the Bergthal Mennonite Church near Pawnee Rock, KS, the Friedensberg congregation of Avon, South Dakota, as well as the Mennonites of Montezuma, KS, and Major County, Oklahoma (Meno, Ringwood, Fairview).  The town of Lebanon, Connecticut, also has strong ties to the Karolswalde villages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon,_Connecticut).

While there are many Ratzlaff members of the Alexanderwohl Congregation, I’m not aware of any, aside from the Andreas Ratzlaff family, who were descended from residents of the Karolswalde villages.  Daughter congregations of Alexanderwohl include the Hoffnungsau Church (and the Buhler and Inman, KS, churches) near Buhler, KS and the Tabor, Lehigh, Goessel, Walton and Burns, KS, churches.