Mennonite
Historical
Society
of Alberta

Births, Marriages & Deaths, Chortitza Colony 1801-13

Introduction to 1801-03, 1806-07 & 1813 Chortitza Colony Vital Records

Inventory of Odessa Archives, Fund (Collection) 6, Inventory 1, Files 65, 98 & 780

GEDCOM Files . . .The data from these vital records is available for review as a table of the original data and as a database in the form of gedcom files in which the ages of the people mentioned in the census have been converted into approximate years of birth. In the table of the vital records data I have attempted to spell names exactly as they appear in the original document. The database of the records is available as two different gedcom files. One gedcom file contains the original census data in which the names are spelled exactly as they appear in the census, except that the umlauts have been converted. The other gedcom file is a modified version in which some surnames such as Pauels and Vriesen and some given names have been converted to more generally accepted forms. Each of these gedcom files may be downloaded. To search the gedcom files most effectively I suggest researchers import the gedcom files into the Brother’s Keeper program and conduct searches using the name codes as found in Grandma database. Researchers interested in reviewing this data already integrated into the data from the 1801 and 1802 Chortitza censuses and from the 1809 and 1814 vaccination lists should download and search the gedcom file of the merged 1801-1814 Chortitza Colony documents database first.Right click to save to your hard drive:
1801-07 Vital Records
Gedcom (original spellings)
Gedcom (standardized spellings) or
Zipped Gedcom (original spellings)
Zipped Gedcom (standardized spellings)
Vital Record tables

 

Extracted by Tim Janzen

This site makes available a collection of vital records of births, marriages, and deaths that occurred in the Chortitza Colony during the period 1801 to 1813. These records cover almost all of the births, marriages, and deaths which occurred in 1801 and 1802, but only portions of the years 1803, 1806, 1807, and 1813.

The vital records found in these files vary in the amount of detail they convey. In general, there is an exact date recorded for the events that occurred in 1802, 1806, 1807, and 1813. However, for events that occurred in 1801 only the month is recorded and for events that occurred during the period January to April, 1803 not even the precise month is specified. In some cases the dates of the events in May, October, and November, 1802 were either difficult or impossible to read because the dates were not included on the microfilm of the data. The archivists at the Odessa State Archives reviewed the pages in the original documents for the dates in question and conveyed to me the dates found in those pages.

The original documents were written in German and in the case of the records from 1806 and 1813 a duplicate copy was written in Russian. The original documents may be found in Files #65 and #98 of the microfilm of selected files from Odessa Archives, Fund 6, Inventory 1 and in File #780 on the microfilm that contains Files #688-850 from the Odessa Archives. The locations of this data within these files is as follows:

  • January to April, 1801: File #65, frames 10-12
  • May, 1801: File #65, frames 13-15
  • June, 1801: File #65, frame 20
  • July, 1801: File #65, frame 26
  • August, 1801: File #65, frames 31, 36
  • September, 1801: File #65, frames 34, 38
  • October, 1801: File #65, frame 47
  • November, 1801: File #65, frame 52
  • January, 1802: File #65, frame 70
  • February, 1802: File #65, frame 81
  • March, 1802: File #65, frame 84
  • April, 1802: File #65, frame 87
  • May, 1802: File #65, frame 90
  • July, 1802: File #65, frame 95
  • August, 1802: File #65, frame 98
  • September, 1802: File #65, frame 101
  • October, 1802: File #65, frame 104
  • November, 1802: File #65, frame 107
  • January-April, 1803: File #65, frames 123-126
  • January-May, 28, 1806: File #65, frames 159-167
  • May-October, 1807: File #98, frames 309-314
  • October, 1813: File #780, frames 15-19
  • November, 1813: File #780, frames 43-44
  • December, 1813: File #780, frames 81-83

The ages at the time of death are generally given in the death records for those who died in 1802, 1803, 1806, 1807, and 1813 but not for those who died in 1801. This makes the precise identification of the people who died in 1801 more difficult. Fortunately, however, there is summary data in the file that includes the ages of all males who died in each village for both 1801 and 1802. This information is helpful in establishing the true identities of the males who died who died in 1801 as well as for a few men who died in 1802, but for whom no age of at the time of death was recorded.

The summary data for 1801 is found in File #65 on frame 77 and the summary data for 1802 is found in File #65 on frames 110 and 111. Two charts that show this data are also located on this web site. I compared the summary data with the death records from 1801 and 1802 and then attempted to match the ages of the men given in the summaries with the names given in the vital records. The following is my reconstruction of the ages given in the summaries matched to the men who died. For reference I have also added the numbers for these men in Grandma III as well as the issue and page number from Henry Schapansky’s articles about the Chortitza Colony in Mennonite Family History so that researchers can know exactly who I believe these men were. If any of you come up with different identities to these people than I have, I would appreciate you letting me know.

1801 – Chortitza

  • Gerhard Braun, age 46; GRANDMA #196206; MFH, Jan., 1995, p. 29
  • Jacob Dyck, age 58; GRANDMA #196354; MFH, Apr., 1994, p. 78
  • Gerhard Braun’s son, age 1; son of Gerhard Braun, GRANDMA #196197; MFH, Apr., 1994, p. 77
  • Heinrich Dyck, age unknown; He might be Heinrich Dyck (b. ca 1740), GRANDMA #196314; MFH, Apr., 1994, p. 78.
  • Johan Krahn, age 39; GRANDMA #197081; MFH, July, 1994, p. 121
  • Michael Kehler, age 68; GRANDMA #196997; MFH, July, 1994, p. 120
  • Diedrich Gerbrandt, age 49; GRANDMA #266367; MFH, Jan., 1995, p. 30
  • Jacob Harder, age 39; GRANDMA #196418; MFH, Apr., 1994, p. 79
  • Johann Wiebe, age 10; GRANDMA #196804; MFH, July, 1994, p. 124
  • Gerhard Wall, age 3; son of Jacob Wall, GRANDMA #20124; MFH, Jan., 1995, p. 33

1801 – Schoenhorst

  • Abraham Neudorf’s son, age 2; son Abraham Neudorf, GRANDMA #174358; MFH, July, 1993, p. 117
  • Gerhard Braun, age 1; son of Gerhard Braun, GRANDMA #196205; MFH, July, 1993, p. 113
  • Johan Zacharias, age 1/4; son of Wilhelm Zacharias, GRANDMA #265327; MFH, July, 1993, p. 112
  • Johann Teichgroeb, age 57; GRANDMA #144717; MFH, Oct., 1993, p. 180 unknown man, age 55; He might be Solomon Neufeld, Grandma #265865; MFH, Oct., 1993, p. 178

1801 – Neuendorf

  • Johann Driedger, age 1/4; son of Johann Driedger, GRANDMA #196547; MFH, Oct., 1991, p. 150
  • Cornelius Lehn, age 1/2 (actually 1/4?), son of Cornelius Lehn, GRANDMA #67657; MFH, Jan., 1992, p. 29
  • Bernhard Loewen’s son, age 3/4; son of Bernhard Loewen, GRANDMA #198207; MFH, Oct., 1991, p. 153
  • Herman Peters’ son, age 1 3/4, son of Herman Peters, GRANDMA #149662; MFH, Oct., 1991, p. 154
  • Anton Klippenstein, age 14, GRANDMA #198505; MFH, Oct., 1991, p. 153 unknown man, age 21
  • Gerhard Doerksen, age 26; GRANDMA #196298; MFH, Oct., 1991, p. 151
  • Herman Dyck, age 29; GRANDMA #266328; MFH, Oct., 1991, p. 152
  • Cornelius Lehn, age 30; GRANDMA #67657; MFH, Jan., 1992, p. 29
  • Isaac Redekopp, age 31; GRANDMA #196773; MFH, Oct., 1991, p. 154
  • Cornelius Janzen, age 43; GRANDMA #198404; MFH, July, 1992, p. 119
  • Johann Driedger, age 48; GRANDMA #196547; MFH, Oct., 1991, p. 150
  • Cornelius Penner, age 60; GRANDMA #198922; MFH, Oct., 1993, p. 178

1801 – Neuenburg

  • Abraham Doerksen, age 1/4; son of Jacob Doerksen, GRANDMA #186863; MFH, July, 1990, p. 96
  • Isaac Doell, age 2 or 2 1/2, son of Peter Doell, GRANDMA #17771; MFH, July, 1990, p. 95
  • unknown child, age 2 or 2 1/2
  • unknown child, age 6 1/2
  • Jacob Lehn, age 34; GRANDMA #265722; MFH, July, 1990, p. 96
  • unknown man, age 49. This is probably the Jacob Peters whose widow is listed at Neuenburg #22 in the 1801 Chortitza census. His GRANDMA # is 196154 and he is person #17 in MFH, July, 1990, p. 95.

1801 – Kronsweide

  • Franz Pauls, age 55; GRANDMA #110649; MFH, July, 1995, p. 117

1801 – Einlage

  • child, age 1; This is probably the son of Peter Neustaedter, GRANDMA #197132, who died at an age less than 15 in July, 1801; MFH, Apr., 1991, p. 77.
  • Isaac Penner, age 35; GRANDMA #197013; MFH, Jan., 1991, p. 30 unknown man age 52; This may be Peter Wiebe (b. ca 1750), GRANDMA #175137; MFH, Apr., 1991, p. 76
  • unknown man, age 53; This is probably Nicholas Heide (b. ca 1748), GRANDMA #198001; MFH, Jan., 1991, p. 28

Note that the statistics are apparently incomplete for Einlage as Johann Braun’s’ two infant sons who died in 1801 aren’t listed here.

1801 – Schoenwiese

  • unknown child age 1; This may be the son of Peter Neufeld (b. ca 1768), GRANDMA #198030, who died in Aug., 1801; MFH, Apr., 1997, p. 68
  • unknown child, age 1 1/2; This may be the son of Peter Neufeld (b. ca 1768), GRANDMA #198030, who died in Sept., 1801; MFH, Apr., 1997, p. 68
  • unknown man, age 60

1801 – Insel Chortitza

  • Anton Hoeppner’s son, age 3 weeks; son of Anton Hoeppner, GRANDMA #156779; MFH, Apr., 1996, p. 72

1801 – Rosenthal

  • Johann Bolt’s son, age 3 1/2; son of Johann Bolt, GRANDMA #198804; MFH, Oct., 1992, p. 166
  • Johann Bolt’s son, age 3 1/2; son of Johann Bolt, GRANDMA #198804; MFH, Oct., 1992, p. 166
  • Peter Friesen, age 6; son of Johann Friesen, GRANDMA #265638; MFH, July, 1992, p. 114
  • unknown child, age 13
  • Heinrich Klassen, age 21; GRANDMA #196388; MFH, July, 1992, p. 115
  • Gerhard Enns, age 22; GRANDMA #343299; MFH, July, 1992, p. 117
  • Heinrich Klassen, age 47; GRANDMA #196382; MFH, July, 1992, p. 115

Note that the age at the time of death for Peter Epp, son of Peter Epp (b. ca 1754) (GRANDMA #15792) (MFH, July, 1992, p. 114), is apparently is not given in the statistics. His age is given as 1/2 of a year in the 1801 census. It seems likely that this young child named Peter Epp who was listed in the census is the Peter Epp who died in Sept., 1801 as listed in the Chortitza Colony vital records. While it is possible that he is the unknown child, age 13 shown above, I can’t seem to find a Peter Epp who would have died at age 13.

I have also gone through the 1802 vital records statistics looking for ages that match people who died in 1802 but for whom no age is given in the vital records. It appears that the statistical data is incomplete for some villages as there are a number of people whose age is given in the vital records but for whom no matching age is found in the statistics. I came up with the following matches for 1802:

  • Aron Peters, age 57, in Schoenhorst; GRANDMA #198928; MFH, Oct., 1993, p. 178
  • Peter Banman, age 31, in Schoenwiese; GRANDMA #132864; MFH, Jan., 1997, p. 31
  • unknown man, age 45, in Kronsweide; This is probably Heinrich Janzen (b. ca 1756), GRANDMA #199120; MFH, Apr., 1995, p. 83

I have thus far not been able to find matches for the following men who died in 1802:

  • unknown man, age 54, in Chortitza
  • unknown man, age 37 1/2, in Schoenhorst
  • unknown man, age 20, in Einlage

If you have any questions about any of this data feel free to contact me.

Tim Janzen
12367 SE Ridgecrest Rd.
Portland, OR 97236

© 2001-11 Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta
Last Updated 01 Apr 2011

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