Ostrog circuit Mennonite villages

There were several Mennonite villages in the Ostrog, Volhynia, area that were settled by Prussian Mennonites from the Schwetz, (Przechowka, also referred to as Culm or Graudenz Mennonites) Prussia, area.  There were also other Mennonite villages in Volhynia that were inhabited by Swiss Mennonites.  Documentation exists that my Ratzlaff ancestors lived in several of these villages including Karolswalde, Zabara, Antonovka, Leeleva, and Mensiliski.  My Voth, Wedel and Nickel ancestors, who married into the Ratzlaff family, also lived in Karolsberge and Gruenthal.  Some records list ancestors as being from Ostroger.  It could refer to the town or county of Ostrog.  For more information on Russian Mennonite villages, see: http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/russia/.  In regards to the Volhynian villages, the following chart lists the ones of which I’m aware:

German  Name	Russian  Name	A.K.A.	Settlement  Date	Province	Colony	Mother Colony
Antonovka			before 1821	Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
Fuerstendorf	Lesna	Leeleva, Lebwa, Lesnaja, Nikitska	before 1874	Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
Fuerstental	Kustarna		about 1870	Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
Jadvinin	Novosilka		about 1808	Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
Karolsberge			about 1827	Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
Karolswalde	Prykerdonne	Holendry Slobodskie, Karlswalde	about 1801	Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
Waldheim	Meselski	Menziliski		Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
	Stanislawka		?	Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
	Michailowka		?	Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
Gruental	Moshchanytsya	Moszczanica	about 1877	Volhynia	Karolswalde	Culm-Gaudenz, Prussia
Michalin			1798	Volhynia
Dosidorf	Zabara	Zabarskie		Volhynia
Waldheim	Solianka			Volhynia
Heinrichsdorf			1848	Volhynia		Waldheim, Molotschna by way of Karolswalde
Bereza				Volhynia
Horodyszce				Volhynia
Jozefin				Volhynia
Lindental				Volhynia
Melanienwald				Volhynia
Zofyovka				Volhynia

The following map is taken from the Mennonite Atlas.  It shows most of the Mennonite villages in Volhynia, including those that weren’t associated with Karolswalde.  Note that Michalin, which is not marked on this map, was located just south of Berdichev, which would be the extreme lower right-hand corner of this map.

The following maps show the villages that were in the Karolswalde area.  The first map was produced by the Austrians in the very early 1900s.  Moszczanica (Gruental) can be seen just NE of Ostrog.  Several of the other villages appear south of Ostrog.  Leeleva is marked as Nikitska:

Finally, this last map was produced by the Polish Army in the 1920s.  This map indicates the locations of some of the later villages, Mezelski, Stanislavka and Michailowka, as well as Leeleva (marked as Lesna on this map).  Note that most of these locations are preceeded by “Kol” meaning “colony”.  Fuerstental, marked as Kustarna, can also be seen to the extreme right:

Anna (Foth) Ratzlaff (b1842)

Jacob Ratzlaff’s wife, Anna Foth (or Voth) was probably also born in the Karolswalde villages, although I have less information about her.  According to GRANDMA, Anna was born on 05/24/1842 and was baptized on 06/10/1861.  This is the listing from Tobias Unruh’s baptism records:

Aufschreibung von Diejenigen welche durch die heilige Wassertaufe in unsere Gemeine zu Antonowke in dem Bethause daselbst als Brueder und Schwestern auf- und angenommen worden sind.

1.  Tobias Heinrichs Sohn                  Unruh                     zu Antonowke

2.  Adam Andreas Sohn                      Koehn                    zu Antonowke

3.  Jacob Andreas Sohn                      Koehn                    zu Antonowke

4.  Andreas Davids Sohn                    Koehn                    zu Antonowke

5.  Benjamin Andreas Sohn                Buller                      zu Antonowke

6.  Peter Andreas Sohn                       Koehn                    zu Antonowke

7.  Cornelius Davids Sohn                  Nickel                     von Karolswalde  58/51

8.  Peter Peters Sohn                            Unruh                     zu Antonowke

9.  Cornelius Heinrichs Sohn              Unruh                     zu Antonowke

10. Bernth Peters Sohn                        Voth                       von Karolswalde  27/24

11.  Benjamin Peters Sohn                  Unruh                     zu Antonowke

12. Benjamin Davids Sohn                  Koehn                    zu Antonowke

13.  Jacob Davids Sohn                       Koehn                    zu Antonowke

14.  Peter Davids Sohn                        Koehn                    zu Antonowke

15. Andreas Heinrichs Sohn              Schmidt                  zu Antonowke

16.  Benjamin Andreas Sohn              Unruh                     zu Antonowke

                                Nun folgend die Jungfrauen:

1.  Sara Jacobs Tochter                       Koehnen                zu Antonowke

2.  Elske Andreas Tochter                  Ratzlaffen              zu Antonowke

3.  Susanna Andreas Tochter            Koehnen                zu Antonowke

4.  Anna Andreas Tochter                  Koehnen                zu Antonowke

5.  Eva Andreas Tochter                     Nachtigalen           zu Antonowke

6.  Elscke Heinrichs Tochter               Koehnen                zu Antonowke

7.  Maria Jacobs Tochter                    Wedeln                  zu Antonowke

8.  Elsckke Johanns Tochter               Unruhen                zu Antonowke

9.  Eva Peters Tochter                         Beckern                  zu Antonowke

10. Anna Andreas Tochter                 Unruhen                zu Antonowke

11. Eva Heinrichs Tochter                  Vothen                   zu Antonowke

12.  Anna Heinrichs Tochter              Vothen                   zu Antonowke

13. Helena Johanns Tochter               Nachtigalen           zu Antonowke

Diese hier aufgeschriebene anderseitige und dies seitige sechzehn maennliche und dreizehn weibliche Seelen sind auf ihrem Verlangen durch dem heiligen Worte Gottes und dem Befehle Jesu Christi im beysein viele Zeugen getaufet und durch eine Handaufnehmung als Glieder in der mennoniten Gemeine am 23.ten Junius Neuenstyls Anno 1861 in dem Bethause zu Antonowke auf- und angenommen worden. Als nehmlich am ersten heiligen Pfingstfeiertage.  Der Aeltester Tobias Unruh.

I’m not sure if the Eva Voth who preceeds Anna on the list might be her sister or not, but it could very well be possible.  Based on this information, Anna’s father was named Heinrich Voth.  The baptism took place in the village of Antonovka.

According to the green Jacob Ratzlaff genealogy book, Anna had three half-brothers named Bernard, Peter, and Fred Ratzlaff, who all came to the U.S.A.  Based on that information, Anna’s mother must have been widowed by Heinrich Voth or by a Ratzlaff male.  The Jacob Ratzlaff book doesn’t indicate whether these three half-brothers were older or younger than Anna.

Anna passed away on April 8, 1912, and was buried in the Logan cemetery near Durham

, KS.  I’ve searched the cemetery, but have not been able to locate the gravestone (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=92912&CScn=logan&CScntry=4&CSst=18&CScnty=941&).

After Anna’s death, Jacob lived with his daughters.  The 1920 U.S.A. census finds him living with Helena’s family in Major County, OK.  Jacob passed away in December of 1926 and was buried in Halstead, KS, on December 21^st.  His gravestone is fairly easy to find in the Halstead cemetery (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=ratzlaff&GSfn=jacob&GSiman=1&GScid=92629&GRid=54937171&)

Heinrich Ratzlaff, father of Jacob Ratzlaff (b1842)

According to the information I currently have, my great great great grandfather’s name was Heinrich Ratzlaff and I feel it’s likely that he was somehow related to the Johann Ratzlaff (1726-1805) family.  He was born sometime near the year 1800 in either Driesen, Brandenburg, or Karolswalde, Volhynia.  GRANDMA tells us that his first name may have been Jacob.  We do not know Heinrich’s wife’s name, but the couple did have four children.

1)      Henry, birth date unknown

2)      Jacob, born 08/12/1842

3)      Benjamin Jacob, born c.1848

4)      Susanna H, born 03/15/1850

#3 Benjamin’s middle name was Jacob, and #2 Jacob has also been listed with the middle initial “J”., so it’s possible that Heinrich’s name was actually Jacob.

We don’t know much about Heinrich or the oldest son, Henry.  GRANDMA indicates that Jacob, Benjamin and Susanna were all born in Karolswalde.  The green Jacob Ratzlaff book indicates that Jacob was born in Holland, but that’s just not very likely to be accurate.  Henry was probably born around 1840, which would indicate Heinrich’s birthdate to be in the neighborhood of 1800.  We don’t know anything further about Henry at this time except that the green Jacob Ratzlaff book says that he never left Russia.  Benjamin and Susanna’s names appear, like their brother Jacob’s, in the Tobias Unruh baptism record.  Unruh lists Benjamin as having been baptized in Zabara in 1858.  Susanna was baptized in 1866, but the location isn’t indicated.  Given the birth dates of the children, the Heinrich Ratzlaff family must have moved from Karolswalde to Zabara between 1850 and 1858.  They must have returned to Karolswalde by 1869.  Notes indicate that the family moved from “Poland to Russia” in 1867; could this refer to the move from Zabara to Karolswalde?

Jacob’s children are listed in an earlier entry, so they won’t be repeated here, but GRANDMA also lists names for Benjamin’s children and Susanna’s children.

Benjamin married a woman by the name of Eva Schmidt who was born around the year 1849.  In 1877, his and five other families set out to move to Jerusalem.  The party got as far as Turkey where they were forced to stop.  They lived in Turkey for five years until a typhoid epidemic took Benjamin’s life at some point around 1881.  He was buried in Turkey.  We don’t know if Eva and the children came back to Volhynia or not, but in 1882 the family emigrated to the U.S.A. and settled near Halstead, KS.  Benjamin and Eva Ratzlaff’s children were:

1)      Bernhard, b.1864 in Volhynia, d.1944 in Regina Saskatchewan.

2)      Maria, b.1868 in Volhynia, d.1947 in Halstead, KS.  Maria married Heinrich Nightengale and many of her descendants still live in Kansas.

3)      Henry B, b.1871 in Volhynia, d.1943 in Montezuma, KS.  Henry married Sarah Schmidt and the family moved to Montezuma.

4)      Andreas, b.1874 in Volhynia, d.1949 in Delhi, CA.

5)      Helena, b.1876 in Volhynia, d.1940 in Fairview, OK.  Helena married Andrew Koehn in Marion County, KS.  After Koehn’s death, Helena married Henry Nichols in Fairview, OK.

6)      Jacob Benjamin, b.1877 in Volhynia, d.1863 in Winton, CA.  Jacob married Susie Koehn in Enid, OK.  The family lived in OK, Canada, and CA.

            The eldest child, Carolina (b.1864) probably died young.

Susanna was born in 1850 in Karolswalde.  She married Jacob Boese (Base) (1949-1897) of Karolswalde in 1871 and the family immigrated to the U.S.A. aboard the SS Kenilworth in 1875.  The couple had 10 children between 1872 and 1894 and must have attended the Bergthal Mennonite Church in Pawnee Rock, KS, although not much is know about them.  Susanna remarried later in the U.S.A. to a man named Albrecht.    GRANDMA does not indicate the date of her death.

Johann Ratzlaff (b1726) of Neu-Dessau

Johann Ratzlaff (Retzlaff) was born 02/01/1726 and died 11/27/1805.  His first wife’s name was unknown and she died in about 1770, probably in Driesen, after giving birth to six children.  His second wife’s name was Sarah Voth (1757 – 1805).  Sarah and Johann had 14 children.  Johann may have had a third marriage as well, to a woman with the last name of Funck, but GRANDMA doesn’t give us any further information about this union.  For perspective sake, Johann Ratzlaff was a contemporary of George Washington.

Records indicate that Johann was born in Kolm.  GRANDMA tells us that this location is actually Holm, which lay immediately SE of the city of Driesen, Brandenburg.  Other records (http://reidgen.com/familygroup.php?familyID=F14402&tree=ReidFamilyTree) indicate that he was born in Holm, Grosswerder, West Prussia.  I would guess this location may refer to Culm (Chelmno), West Prussia, which lies just south across the Vistula River from Schwetz.  Culm, West Prussia, is close to the Grosswerder, West Prussia, whereas Holm near Driesen is not.  Furthermore, Holm near Driesen should not be referred to as West Prussia in this time period as it was more correctly located in Neumark, Brandenburg.  In this circumstance, the Ratzlaff family lived near two towns with very similar names and it appears this may have led to some confusion over the years.  I feel Johann may have been born in Culm, West Prussia, as Mennonite records indicate that Mennonites began to appear in the Driesen area in 1738 (http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/N478.html/?).  Johann was born in 1726, twelve years prior to this date.

Regardless of his birth location, Johann came to own a dairy farm and his family was among the first Mennonite families in the marshy Netze River valley known as the Netzebruch.  Driesen is today known as Drezdenko, Poland, and lies about 25 miles east of Gorzow Wielkopolski.  Neither Holm nor Neu Dessau appear on today’s maps but this is how the area was mapped in the late 1800s:

Johann owned a dairy near the village of Neu-Dessau and his name can be found in the Court Records regarding land ownership: http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/court1.htm.  Johann sold his estate in Neu Dessau in 1782 to a George Piepcke.  GRANDMA tells us that Johann died in 1805, in Driesen.  Other records indicate that Johann died in Volhynia.  Whether he died in Driesen or Volhynia, it’s fairly clear that at some point in the very early 1800s, this Ratzlaff family moved from the Driesen area into Volhynia.

According to GRANDMA, Johann had the following children:

            Spouse: Unknown name:

1)      Jacob, born 09/15/1748

2)      Johan, born 09/01/1756

3)      Eva, born 09/011759

4)      Anna, born 11/05/1762

5)      Jacob, born 06/20/1765

6)      Sara, born 02/06/1769

Spouse: Sarah (Sarcke) Voth (05/11/1757 – 04/09/1805):

7)      Anna, born 01/19/1771

8)      Katarina, born 10/14/1772

9)      Andreas, born 11/02/1775

10)  Maria, born 11/12/1777

11)  Anna, born 02/24/1780

12)  Bernhard, born 07/31/1782

13)  Heinrich Hans, born 12/12/1784

14)  Helena, born 03/01/1785

15)  Eliesabeth, born 01/12/1787

16)  Tobias, born 03/21/1788

17)  Susanna, born 03/11/1791

18)  Peter, born 06/11/1793

19)  Abraham, born 08/17/1795

20)  Heinrich, born 07/23/1798

GRANDMA lists sources for this information including “Franklin Voth Family Records” (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bobstrong&id=I116341)

and “Ancestors of Abram Peter Thiessen” (http://reidgen.com/familygroup.php?familyID=F14402&tree=ReidFamilyTree).

“Retzlaff Roots from the Scroll” by Evangeline Neuschwander lists similar information.  I’d question the indication that Johann continued to have children into his 70s, but the information from three different sources shows this to be the case.  Neuschwander, listing information found in an old scroll in an attic in Canada doesn’t list #13 Heinrich Hans at all and attributes his birth date to #20 Heinrich.  Neuschwander’s elimination of the duplicate name makes sense, but information for a 20^th child exists in other records.  According to Abe J. Unruh (Helpless Poles), information for these families living in the Netzebruch is sparse and they began to be cut off from the other Mennonite groups in Prussia.  Later when they moved into Volhynia, they were further cut off from their brethren in South Russia.  Finally, church records which were taken from Brenkenhoffswalde (Neumark) to Karolswalde were lost in a fire.  These are among the many reasons that records for the Netzebruch Mennonites, including the Ratzlaffs, are scarce and difficult to piece together. 

Neuschwander indicates that Andreas Ratzlaff, born 1833 (the man I feel travelled with Jacob Ratzlaff to U.S.A. in 1893) was the son of #20 Heinrich Ratzlaff, while GRANDMA lists him as a son of #13 Heinrich Hans.  Neuschwander also doesn’t list two Heinrichs at all.  If two Heinrich’s did not exist, my theory of Jacob Ratzlaff being a descendant of Johann Ratzlaff becomes less likely.  Jacob probably was not the son of #13 Heinrich Hans as none of the sources list him thus. 

GRANDMA feels that two Heinrichs did indeed exist, although further investigation is needed regarding the duplicate name.  If #20 Heinrich’s name was actually Jacob, as the green Jacob Ratzlaff genealogy book may indicate, it could help solve the problem of the duplicate name.

Andreas Ratzlaff, born 1833

Andreas Ratzlaff, husband of Maria (Janzen) Ratzlaff, was born in Antonovka, Volhynia, in 1833.  Antonovka lies just a couple miles west of Karolswalde along the road from Ostrog to Kuniv.  Karolswalde and Antonovka were the two Mennonite parishes in the Karolswalde Circuit.  Antonovka was associated with Fuerstendorf (Leeleva) and Menziliski (Waldheim) among others (Leeleva and Menziliski are locations associated closely with the Jacob Ratzlaff family).  Andreas Ratzlaff was the youngest son of Heinrich Hans Ratzlaff (1784-1848) and Maria Sawatzky (1797-1891).  The CMHS GRANDMA database indicates that all six of Heinrich Hans’ and Maria’s children were born in Volhynia.  In 1837, the family moved from Volhynia to the Molotschna Mennonite Colony in South Russia.  Following Heinrich Hans’ death in 1848, Maria and some of the children moved back to Volhynia and lived in the Heinrichsdorf village near Zhytomyr.  http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/volhynia_ukraine.

GRANDMA doesn’t specify for certain whether Andreas moved back to Volhynia with his mother.  Therefore at this time I’m not sure about Andreas’ chronological whereabouts.  Nevertheless, this Andreas Ratzlaff had strong ties to the Antonovka parish villages in Volhynia and moved between this parish and the Moloschna at least once.

My great great grandfather Jacob also lived in the Antonovka parish villages.  We can’t be certain in which village he was born.  GRANDMA tells us that Jacob was born in Karolswalde in 1842, but doesn’t give a source for that information.  However, GRANDMA also indicates that two of Jacob’s younger siblings, Benjamin and Susanna, were also born in Karolswalde.  Susanna was born in 1850, so if the GRANDMA information is correct, Jacob and his family lived in Karolswalde until at least 1850.  During the first several years of the 1860s he lived in Zabara, as that is the location of his baptism in 1862 and his first child’s birth in 1863.  Sometime by 1869, though, the family moved to the Antonovka parish, as my great grandfather Andreas Ratzlaff was born in Fuerstendorf (Leeleva) in 1869, and the rest of the younger children were probably born in Menziliski. 

Jacob (b 1842) and Andreas (b 1833) traveled together to the U.S.A. in 1893, so obviously they had some sort of relationship.  Jacob lived in Volhynia while Andreas lived in the Molotschna, but perhaps their families were acquainted prior to 1837.  Perhaps they dealt with one another after Andreas’ mother returned from the Molotschna to Heinrichsdorf after 1848.  Whatever the case, they obviously rendezvoused in 1893.  They both shared the last name Ratzlaff and were of a similar age.  I don’t believe they were brothers though, as GRANDMA indicates otherwise.  Could they have been cousins?

GRANDMA doesn’t indicate, and I don’t have any other sources at this time that tell us, where or when Jacob’s father, Heinrich, was born.  However, given the birth dates of Jacob and his siblings, Heinrich must have been born in the neighborhood of 1800 and must have lived in Karolswalde by 1842.  We can be fairly certain that his name was Heinrich, as that’s the name indicated in the Tobias Unruh baptism records.  There are some indications, though, that his name may have been Jacob.  GRANDMA mentions this, and that would also solve the mystery of why the green Jacob Ratzlaff genealogy book lists “J” as Jacob’s middle initial.

Andreas (b 1833) Ratzlaff’s father, Heinrich Hans, was born in 1784.  GRANDMA doesn’t tell us for certain where he was born, but his father’s name was Johann Ratzlaff and he had as many as 13 siblings and 6 half-siblings.  Many of these siblings were born in the Mennonite villages near Driesen, Brandenburg.  Johann Ratzlaff was born in 1726 in Kolm, and died in 1805 in Driesen.  Again, we don’t know where Heinrich Hans was born, but we do know that he lived in Volhynia by 1820, where his children were born.  GRANDMA lists that Heinrich Hans had a younger brother by the name of Heinrich, who was born in 1798.  It’s troublesome that Heinrich Hans shared a first name with a sibling; there may be an inaccuracy there.  If a different first name could be attributed to Heinrich, it would alleviate the worry of two siblings with duplicate first names.  GRANDMA lists no further information for this Heinrich Ratzlaff beyond his birth date. 

In his book, The Helpless Poles, Abe J. Unruh discusses the origins of the Mennonites who lived in areas of Russia which have a strong Polish background, including Volhynia.  Unruh makes the assertion that many of the Mennonites from the Brandenburg villages of Brenkenhoffswalde and Neu-Dessau made their way to Volhynia in the early 19^th century.  Based on this information, Jacob Ratzlaff’s father or grandfather may very well have had ties to the Brandenburg villages.

1)      Andreas and Jacob travelled to the U.S.A. together in 1893.

2)      Andreas and Jacob were both born in the Karolswalde or Antonovka villages.

3)      Jacob’s father, Heinrich, was probably descended from Brandenburg Mennonites and was probably born around the year 1800.

4)      Andreas’ father, Heinrich Hans, was born in the Brandenburg village of Neu-Dessau and had a brother named Heinrich who was born in 1798.  Their father’s name was Johann Ratzlaff.

5)      If this Heinrich was also known as Jacob, two Johann Ratzlaff offspring wouldn’t have the same name.

Could Johann Ratzlaff’s son Heinrich be Jacob Ratzlaff’s father?  Given the above information, it certainly looks possible.  If that were the case, Jacob and Andreas would have been first cousins.