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.

Ratzlaffs of the Przechowko Mennonite Congregation

As stated earlier, in all likelihood the ancestors of my Ratzlaff family were members of the Przechowko congregation near Schwetz in West Prussia.  Descendants of the Przechowko church formed the congregations in the Neumark which in turn moved into Volhynia and formed the Karolswalde villages.  The Mennonite Church in Leeleva by the early 1900s identified itself with the Alexanderwohl congregation which was basically the Przechowko church in Russia.

My Ratzlaffs probably moved from Przechowko to Neumark to Volhynia and then to America.  During the course of these migrations, records were lost or destroyed.  As a result, linking my Ratzlaff family line with those of Przechowko is very difficult.

The Przechowko Church (http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/P780.html/?searchterm=przechowka) kept very detailed records of its members.  The resulting Przechowko Churchbook (Church Records of the Old Flemish or Gröningen Mennonisten Societaet in Przechowko, West Prussia) is an invaluable source of information.  Scans of the churchbook can be seen here: http://mla.bethelks.edu/metadata/cong_15.php.  In 1784, Jacob Wedel, current elder of the Przechowko Church, compiled the churchbook in order to comply with a royal order by King Frederick William II obliging all churches in Prussia to provide statistics regarding their congregations.  Elders succeeding Jacob Wedel continued the records which were taken with the congregation from West Prussia to South Russia (Alexanderwohl) in 1820 and again to Kansas in 1874.  Soon after 1974, as a commemoration of the centennial of the arrival of the congregation to America, Jacob A Duerksen and his colleagues undertook to translate the churchbook from German to English.  The resulting translation can be purchased from Mennonite bookstores or museums but, unfortunately, is to my knowledge not available online.

There are many Ratzlaffs listed in the Przechowko Churchbook, but one line of them must connect with my Ratzlaff line in some way.   Heinrich Ratzlaff is the earliest Ratzlaff ancestor I know, and his son Jacob (born 1842) represents the earliest date I know for certain.  In an analysis of the Przechowko Churchbook, I will be looking for a Ratzlaff ancestor who may be Heinrich’s father.  The Ratlzaff man I'm looking for would have been born in the mid-1700s (Heinrich's birthdate would have been around 1800).  He also may very well have been listed as living in the Neumark villages of Brenkenhoffswalde, Franzthal or Neu-Dessau.  These villages were settled in the mid-1700s, so it's unlikely that he would remain in the Przechowko area by that time.  It's also extremely unlikely he would have lived in the Molotschna Colony. 

To do this, I'm simply going to take all the Ratzlaff males from the Przechowko Churchbook, put them into family trees, and look for the one who fits the bill.  I’ll double check the data in the Churchbook with the information available from GRANDMA in an attempt to capture all the male Ratzlaff names from Przechowko.  I believe my ancestor has to be one of them.

The first Ratzlaff was born somewhere in the neighborhood of the year 1600 and was a soldier from Sweden.  The Churchbook lists him as having had only 1 son, Hans, born around the year 1630.  Hans had 5 sons: Berent, Hans, Tobias, Adam and Jacob.  I’ll break my analysis of the Przechowko Ratzlaffs down between the 5 grandsons of the original Ratzlaffs.  Here’s a simple tree showing the original Ratzlaff, his son Hans, and his 5 grandsons.  The numbers beside the names are the serial numbers from the GRANDMA database:

		Berent 32092, 1660-1717
		Hans 36105, b 1661
Ratzlaff 36101, b c1600??	Hans 36103, c1630-c1689
		Tobias 36106, b 1692
		Adam 36111, 1700-1758
		Jacob 35841, 1704-1758

. 

Note that there is a large gap between the birthdates of Hans 36105 and Tobias 36106.  There were also several sisters in this family who would have filled in this gap.  Unfortunately though, I will not be tracking the females since they weren't carriers of the name Ratzlaff.  If and when I can determine who my Przechowko Ratzlaff ancestors were I can go back and construct trees which include the names of the females.

Questions

A few inconsistencies/inaccuracies have emerged by this point regarding the Wedel family.  I have a feeling these issues may be tied together somehow, but I can’t say how just yet:

            1) Maria’s and Carolina’s names and ages on the Weimar manifest

            2) Identity of the mother of the young Wedel children on the Weimar

            3) Who was Johann Andreas Nachtigall and was he related to the Wedel family?

GRANDMA lists the following children of Peter Jacob and Katharina (Nickel) Wedel like this:

            1) Susanna, (05/14/1873 – 1958) (Married Andreas Ratzlaff

            2) Henry, (03/16/1875 – 04/21/1875)

            3) Eva, (05/29/1878 – 09/10/1879)

            4) Maria, (03/05/1881 – 03/20/1935) (Married John Andrew Nightengale)

            5) Carolina, (12/25/1881 – 10/17/1941) (Married Heinrich Unruh)

            6) Anna, (09/26/1885 – 1895)

            7) Elisabeth, (11/11/1887 – 01/28/1963) (Married Abraham Nightengale)

            8) Agnetha, (03/29/1890 – 10/14/1972)

First, the manifest of the SS Weimar lists Maria and Carolina travelling with the Wedels, but does not list Elisabeth or Agnetha at all.  According to the information in GRANDMA, both Maria and Carolina were in their 20’s and probably married by 1907.  Maria married Andreas Johann Nachtigall and Carolina married Heinrich T. Unruh.  If they were married by 1907, their last names wouldn’t have been listed as Wedel.  As far as I can tell, there are no Nachtigalls (Nightengales) or Unruhs (aside from the Benjamin Unruhs) on the Weimar manifest.  Also, the ages of the girls listed on the manifest are not correct at all.  Maria and Carolina both would have been about 26 years old in 1907 but the manifest lists them as 19 and 12. 

On the other hand, Elisabeth and Agnetha don’t appear to be listed on the manifest at all.  Their ages would have been 20 and 17 at the time.  Is it possible that the names “Maria and Carolina” were substituted on the manifest for Elisabeth and Agnetha’s correct names?  If so, why?  Is the information in GRANDMA incorrect? 

The next problem regards the 2 Wedel children that are listed in the Weimar manifest and confirmed by Marie (Ratzlaff) Penner.  The manifest lists Maria (age 6) and Heinrich (age 4), travelling with Peter and Katarina Wedel.  Marie (Ratzlaff) Penner, who was about 9 at the time of the emigration, tells us that these children were Peter and Katarina’s grandchildren.  Their mother, one of Susanna (Wedel) Ratzlaff’s sisters (left unidentified by Marie (Ratzlaff) Penner) had died and her husband, the mother of these 2 children, was away completing forestry service in 1907.  Therefore the children travelled with their grandparents.  Marie (Ratzlaff) Penner confirms the ages of the children listed on the manifest.  Who could the mother have been?  From GRANDMA’s list of Peter and Katarina Wedel’s children, all are accounted for and none appear to have died after having 2 children.  Maria, Carolina, Elisabeth and Agnetha are all documented as living in America.  Is there another Wedel daughter not listed by GRANDMA who died prior to 1907? 

In 1922, Andreas Ratzlaff sent some type of food remittance to a brother-in-law who remained in Russia.  The only possibility for this brother-in-law is the surviving father of these 2 children – the husband of the deceased Wedel daughter who was completing his forestry service in 1907.  No other brother-in-law of Andreas Ratzlaff could have still remained in Russia by 1922.  A postcard that was in the possession of my grandfather, Albert Ratzlaff, shows that Andreas Ratzlaff sent a food remittance to a Johann Andreas Nachtigall on February 10, 1922, via American Mennonite Relief (AMR) http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/A4572.html/.  Johann identified Andreas as his Schwager (brother-in-law), and listed his address as Pordenau, Sud-Russland (South Russia) (Pordenau was a village in the Molotschna Colony).  Johann indicated on the postcard that his family consisted of himself and his wife (“Mann & Frau”) and 1 child under the age of 15 years:

Did Johann remarry after the death of his first wife (the Wedel daughter) and reside in Pordenau, Molotschna after he was discharged from forestry service?  We know Maria Wedel’s husband’s name was Andreas Johann Nachtigall, and he would have been Andreas Ratzlaff’s brother-in-law.  Could Andreas Ratzlaff also have had a different brother-in-law named Johann Andreas Nachtigall?  Two brothers-in-law with almost the same name?  I also have copies of some letters that my grandfather kept with this postcard.  The letters are being translated at this time by the Mennonite Library and Archives at Bethel College in North Newton, KS.  Hopefully they will lend some information to who Johann Andreas Nachtigall was.