What about the fact that the Jake Unruh Leeleva map doesn’t seem
to correspond to today’s geography of the area south of Ostrog? To my knowledge, there are no maps that mark
a village as Leeleva directly south of Ostrog.
How then do we reach a conclusion regarding which village was the
Leeleva of our ancestors?
In the early German Mennonite sources, the village later
known as Leeleva was called Fürstendorf (Fuerstendorf). Abe J Unruh in his book The Helpless Poles,
as well as Mennonite Elder Tobias Unruh in his baptism records, refers to a German
Mennonite village by the name of Fürstendorf.
Jake Unruh, the author of the Leeleva map used frequently in this blog
says that Fürstendorf was the old name of the village, and that by about the
time of the turn of the century, the village was called Leeleva (this can
probably be attributed to the Empire’s “Russification” policy during the latter
half of the 19th Century. The
German name Fürstendorf undoubtedly had to be done away with) . In the Green Ratzlaff Book, the village is
referred to as Lilewa (in German, that “W” makes a “V” sound, so the
pronunciation of Leeleva and Lilewa would be very similar). Finally, in his 1905 survey of Mennonite
villages, (Statistik der Mennonitengemeinden in Russland Ende 1905 [Anhang zum
Mennonitischen Jahrbuche 1904/05], Gnadenfeld: Dirks, 1905: 39) Heinrich Dirks
asserts that the name of the village is Lileva, and that the ministers were
Johann Jantz, Johann Nachtigal, and Johann Dekkert. In a document possibly dated 1893 and signed
by Johann Böhse (Boese) attesting to the fact that the resident Benjamin Unruh
Family were Mennonites, Böhse names the village Lilewa and accompanies it with
“bei Ostrog” to note the village’s geographic proximity to the town of
Ostrog.
After the Mennonites left the area, Lutherans came to
populate the village (in fact, some Lutherans lived there already by the late
1900s). Metrical Books kept by the
Lutheran bishop in Rovno list the name as Furstindorf and Furstendorf. I am also in possession of a map of the
village dated 1935-1936 when the village was populated by Lutheran Germans which
names the village as Lesnoe.
I’ve consulted several experts with whom I am acquainted,
asking them regarding the location of the village of Fürstendorf. Luckily, we have many folks who are experts
in this area; there were many German colonists in Volhynia in the 19th
and early 20th Centuries.
Mennonites were among the first to come to the area, but Lutherans and
Baptists followed shortly behind.
Therefore we can look at not only Mennonite records to determine the
location of Fürstendorf/Leeleva, but also Lutheran and Baptist records as well.
Mennonite sources indicate that the village that was named Fürstendorf
was just a couple miles southwest of Jadwinin and maybe a mile more southeast
of Antonovka. This would seem today to
indicate the village of Lisna (Lesna).
This is a comparison of a modern satellite view versus the Ostog area
from the Mennonite Atlas. Note that
Jadwinin is known today as Novosilka.
Don Miller is a descendant of German Baptists who lived in
the area (Don’s ancestors actually lived in the village next door to the
village in which my Ratzlaffs lived for a short period of time to the northeast
of the Leeleva area named Zabara. Many
of our group of Mennonites lived in Zabara/Dosildorf in the 1850s and
1860s. My great grandfather Jacob
Ratzlaff was baptized there by Elder Tobias Unruh). Don is distinguished scholar regarding the
history of the Germans in Volhynia and annually leads tours to the area. He’s been down the road through Lisna many
times. He assures me that Lisna is
indeed our Fürstendorf/Leeleva.
Don Miller also referred me to a scholar named Jerry Frank,
an archivist with the Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe
(SGGEE). Mr. Frank, says Don Miller, is
the true expert dealing with Volhynian geography. I’ve emailed Mr. Frank and he also indicates
that Fürstendorf/Leeleva can certainly be found on maps today marked as Lisna.
In other places, Fürstendorf/Leeleva can be found as Lesnaya
or Lessnaja, a name somewhat similar to Leeleva. Soviet maps from the 1940s indicate this name,
and this Lesnaya is indeed the village that is today known as Lisna. References to Lesnaya as Fürstendorf can be
found at the website of the “Germans from Russia Heritage Society”, the “Black
Sea German Research” website, as well as the German website Wolhynien.de. Finally, many old German, Polish and Austrian
maps of the area mark the German villages in the area as colonies. For instance, Karolswalde, Antonovka and
Jadwinine are all usually preceded by “COL” or “KOL” to denote the fact that
the village was a German colony. In
these instances, whether the village is named Lesnaya, Fürstendorf or even
Nikitska, the village which corresponds to today’s Lisna is usually marked as a
colony. For instance, this Polish map
from the 1920s:
All the experts seem to agree, then, that today’s Lisna was
indeed the Leeleva Village of my ancestors.
I still have questions as to why the Jake Unruh map of Leeleva doesn’t
more closely approximate the geography of the village of Lisna village of Lisna
Jake Unruh was a very credible authority to draw the map of
Leeleva. He left Volhynia in 1907 as a
teenager but had been the unofficial village errand boy. When an errand or message needed to be
communicated to one of the other villages, Jake was the boy from Leeleva to
physically do the job by running to the other village. This would certainly give Jake intimate
knowledge of the geography of the area.
Even though the map wasn’t drawn until the 1970s, Jake probably kept
that information stored somewhere down through the years. But Jake probably didn’t have the luxury we
have today of looking at a map of the area when he actually lived there. Even if he was very good with directions, a
hilly, curvy road could have thrown his sense of direction or distance off
somewhat. Whatever the case, Jake’s map
is a priceless resource to our family history and I’m sure no one could have
drawn a better representation of the area.
Could the 1906 Volhynian census give us a clue? Could there have been a different village
named Leeleva? The 1906 census lists a
village named Lesnaya (Лѣсня) as well as Leleva (Лелева). Could this be a clue? Could there have been 2 villages by these
very similar names both within Kunev volost?
Or could this have simply been a clerical error by the census-takers
(for instance, the village of Balyary was simply omitted from the census;
perhaps one of these villages should represent Balyary?). More research needs to be done regarding this
issue.
