Mennonite
Historical
Society
of Alberta

February 21, 2014 6:25 pm

As found in the records of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in Southern Russia (Fund 6, Inventory 5, File 315) in the Odessa Region State Archives, Odessa, Ukraine. Translated from Russian in March 2004 by Tim Janzen, Portland, Oregon

Explanatory comments by Tim Janzen

This document provides information about a group of 36 families and single people who were living in the Kuban Colony in the Caucasus Region in South Russia in 1866. All of the people included in the list were Mennonite Brethren and all were from the Molotschna Colony. The document is found among a collection of documents in File 315. The list is found on pages 87 to 94 in the original file and may be found on frames 162 through 175 on the microfilm of this file. The list itself is not dated, but the latest date mentioned in the document is 1 Jun 1866 and it follows a document that was dated 22 July 1866 so it seems likely that the document was created in June or July 1866. No ages for any of the people are found in the original document.

This list does not appear to be a complete listing of all the Mennonites living in the Kuban Colony in 1866 since 67 families are said to have settled there by 1866¹. The list doesn’t include any families from the Chortitza Colony, likely because the document created by the Molotschna Colony District Office (Giebetsamt) and because the document was created to summarize information about the passport status of Mennonites from the Molotschna Colony who were living in the Kuban Colony in 1866.

While this list unfortunately doesn’t include ages of the people, they can generally be readily identified by using the 1864 List of Families Intending to Settle in the Kuban Colony and the 1869 Kuban Colony Census for reference. This list is of significance primarily because it states when specific families left the Molotschna Colony to go to the Kuban Colony, which is information that neither of the lists from 1864 or 1869 provide.

Only three single people or heads of families who are found in this list are not found in either of the lists from 1864 or 1869, specifically Jacob Regier, David Reimer, and Isaac Regier. It would appear that they returned to the Molotschna Colony sometime between 1866 and 1869.

In this translation the names of the Mennonites and the locations have been translated into their most common form. The words “wife”, “son”, and “daughter” have been abbreviated as “w”, “s”, and “d”, respectively. To provide additional information I think would be helpful to researchers I have added a column on the left side of the table that provides the GRANDMA number of the head of the household if they are currently found in the GRANDMA database. Information that has been placed in brackets does not appear in the original but has been added for clarification.

The original document from which this translation was made may be found on microfilm at the following archives:

• The Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, Fresno, California
• The Center for Mennonite Studies, Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas
• The Mennonite Historical Society of British Columbia, Abbotsford, British Columbia
• The Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Alex Voth provided helpful suggestions for the improvement of this translation.

Footnote

¹ The Kuban Settlement by C. P. Toews, Heinrich Friesen, and Arnold Dyck, p. 14

© 2004 Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta
Last Updated 7 Apr 2004

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