Mennonite
Historical
Society
of Alberta

Resources

  1. Dorfbericht Village Reports

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    This is the beginning of a collection of translations of Dorfbericht or Village Reports that were prepared in the early 1940s for the Minister of Occupied Eastern Territories. Adam Giesinger has written that Dr. Karl Stumpp headed up the organization “which was set up by the ministry to gather information on the ethnic Germans in the Ukraine” and which “had its headquarters at Dnepropetrovsk on the Dnieper. From this base, men working under Dr. Stumpp’s direction went out to the German villages in the areas accessible to them and, with the aid of local people, particularly teachers and village officials, filled out the prescribed questionnaires”.

    Because of the instability of the times, only a some (about 80) reports were completed, mostly from the area between the Bug and the Dnieper rivers (none for the Odessa area nor for the Molotschna area). These reports were apparently lost for many years, and then were brought to the United States and housed in the Library of Congress.

    I became aware of these reports at the time of the American Historical Society for Germans from Russia‘s annual conference which was held in Calgary, 1995 when microfilmed copies of some of the villages were available for review. A full list would be available from the AFHS, as well as photocopies of the individual reports. The introduction provided by Adam Giesinger identified that part or complete reports were available for the following and other villages on microfilm (I do not have the complete list):

    A recently released book by Richard H. Walth, Flotsam of World History: The Germans from Russia between Stalin and Hitlerreviews these materials extensively, providing statistical and descriptive summaries of the material they contain. One of the reports (for Kronau) is duplicated in the book (available from Michael Miller mmmiller@badlands.nodak.edu for $26 (US) plus ship/handling).

    Associated with this site are translations for several villages; Additional translations will become available as time permits, and focussing on the Mennonite villages. If others would like to provide electronic copies of translations, I would be prepared to provide the coding necessary to put them onto the internet.

    Substantial credit has to be given to Ann G. Rempel and Dora Epp of Calgary, Alberta who spent many Sundays reviewing the microfilm copies under magnifying glasses, poring through dictionaries, puzzling over gothic script, and reliving some of their own experiences as they read the words recorded by the village officials. Helen Friesen of Calgary and Erna Goerzen of Didsbury also assisted significantly in the translation work.

    This started out for me as a simple exercise in obtaining genealogical data and ended up being an opportunity to learn to know these two amazing women and hear from them how common and horrific the experiences of World War II were. They have contributed significantly to my perception of Europe in the 1940s. We share these translations in the hopes that they contribute to genealogy and historical understandings for you too. — Judith Rempel

    Return/Go to:
    Mennonnites.ca
    Prepared by Judith Rempel
    Last updated 1 Jul 2008
     

  2. Periodicals & Archive Resources

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    At the MHSA, we have some substantial resources for the family historian: Mennonite Encyclopaedia; microfilmed Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization records; Church Registers (published account of Bergthal Church plus original records for Gem and Taber); Family, Congregational, Conference, and Local Histories; plus a periodical collection that includes most major Mennonite papers. See the listing of our library holdings, and a brief finding aid for the kinds of records particularly suitable to Mennonite research ers and available at the MHSA..

    Archival collections are being processed and description of those will be online by fall 2003.

    Online Resources

    See also our Genealogy Links, Mennonite Genealogy Links, the comprehensively designed Mennonite Genealogy Data Index & Tim Janzen’s Guide to Russian Mennonite Genealogy Resources, as well as our Data Projects Some of the latter are highlighted here:

    • Mennonite Villages in Russia – Volunteer, Tim Janzen, has prepared a number of important tables of geographic data pertaining to the Mennonite stay in Russia. They can be accessed from our Mennonite Villages homepage. The tables are compilations of:
      – Mennonite Villages in Russia
      – Compilation of Mennonite Villages in Russia Sorted Alphabetically by (German) Village Names
      – Compilation of Mennonite Villages in Russia Sorted Alphabetically by (Russified) Village Names in Russian
      – Compilation of Crimean Mennonite Villages
      – Original List of Mennonite Villages in Russia from the DAI Documents
      – Modified List of Mennonite Villages in Russia from the DAI Documents
    • 1923-30 Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization Settlement Records – Participate in our Project to extract the genealogical contents of the 5,700 CMBOC records. Volunteers needed to photocopy, enter data, proofread, and fund the project. As data is clean, it is being put online – so please visit the CMBOC pages. When complete, it will provide information about 20,000 Mennnonites who arrived at that time. It will also be published in an upcoming GRANDMA CD.
    • 1847 Voters’ List, Molotschna Settlement, South Russia – This list has been located in the Odessa State Archives, Ukraine, Fund 6, Inventory 2, File #10510 – part of a large collection of five microfilms covering 1847-1851. The Voters’ List is the most important material for Mennonite genealogists and has been extracted by Tim Janzen. Read a complete introduction to the materials and find both village-based and surname-based indexes to the material.
    • 1858 & 1873 Yazykovo Settlement Censuses – More from our very busy volunteer, Tim Janzen. Now online for the first time, a census of the Yazykovo settlement compiled in 1873 and the 1858 Chortitza settlement census data for those people who lived in the Yazykovo settlement. For one village (Nikolaifeld) in the Yazykovo settlement, a census compiled in 1869 is also available.
    • Mennonite Records from the Odessa Archives – Newly available from eight microfilms of materials housed at the Odessa Archives in Russia. These films contain selected files from records originally held by the Board of Guardians Committee, from Fund (Collection) 6, Inventory 1 in the Odessa Archives and cover the years 1799-1820.One of the most valuable items found in these microfilms is a complete 1801 census of the Chortitza Colony listing 1,665 Mennonites from nine villages. It is in German and is highly readable. It is similar to the 1795Chortitza Colony census previously published by B. H.Unruh in format.Also of great interest are vital records of all births, marriages, and deaths in theChortitza Colony for much of 1801 and 1802 and for the periods from January to May, 1803, from January to May, 1806, from May to October, 1807, and from October to December, 1813 as well as vital records for theMolotschna Colony for May to August, 1811, from January to April and from September to December, 1813, and from May to July, 1814.The microfilms also include an 1802 Neuenburg village census, 1801, 1803, and 1806 Hutterite Colony censuses, an 1801 Kronsgarten censusIt also lists of all children vaccinated against smallpox in the Chortitza Colony in 1809 and 1814.There are various voters lists for the Chortitza settlement and for the Molotschna settlement during the period 1801 to 1814 among other items.
    • Busau Mennonite Church (Crimea) Records – These records have been transcribed by Tim Janzen. He has generously made available the gedcom files of both the original and a merged version of the files to the MHSA for download from this site. See our Busau pages, to read about the records, review an index of the names in the records and download the gedcom files.

    Last Updated 28 Dec 2011

    General Queries/Comments: Contact MHS

  3. Schools

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    MHSA Project Plan

    Our intent is to assist long-distance and on-site researchers to use these yearbooks by developing indexes of the faculty, staff, directors and students listed and photographed (seeCMBC 1955/56 example).

    Until all the yearbooks are indexed, we can manually check and let you know if someone is listed/photographed.

    Photograph Request

    If you would like a copy of a photograph from our yearbook collection, we can prepare a tif and jpg for you ($10 fee applies) and send them to you by e-mail attachment. Or you can come to the MHSA and make your own photocopy or jpg/tif file ($.25). We can also assist you with making your own tif/jpg file ($5).

    Volunteers Needed

    To Index the Yearbooks – no experience needed, you do not need to live in Calgary.

    Contact us to make a request, volunteer, or obtain more details.

    This finding aid will point researchers to about 150 Canadian Mennonite school yearbooks held in the MHSA Library collection. The base list of schools below and information about them was primarily constructed with information found on GAMEO, but supplemented with print sources.

    While our mandate is to collect, preserve and provide access to documents and books of Alberta Mennonites and their ancestors, when records and books from other geographical areas are donated to us, we also preserve and provide access to them.

    Why are we providing this specific finding aid? Because we have a substantial set of Mennonite school yearbooks. They contain photographs of thousands of Mennonites who studied in these schools. Thus they could contain a photo of your parent or grantparent. For a sample index to a yearbook seeCanadian Mennonite Bible College, 1955/56.

    Do contact us if you know of records and books that could be preserved for all Alberta Mennonite schools.

    British Columbia

    School Name Merger history Conference Affiliation/s Location Years in Operation Yearbooks in Collection
    Bethel Bible Institute later part of Columbia Bible Institute, 1970 General Conference Couglan 1939 Echoes of Bethel
    1953, 1959, 1966, 1970
    Columbia Bible College/ Institute formed from Bethel Bible Institute and Mennonite Brethren Bible Institute Mennonite Brethren & General Conference Abbotsford 1985 1977, 1985, 1990, 1996
    East Chilliwack Mennonite Brethren Bible School Mennonite Brethren Chilliwack 1947
    Elim Bible School Mennonite Brethren Yarrow 1930
    Greendale Bible Institute Mennonite Brethren Sardis 1938
    Mennonite Brethren Bible Institute/School later part of Columbia Bible Institute Mennonite Brethren Clearbrook 1943-1970
    Mennonite Bible School General Conference Sardis or Yarrow 1939
    Mennonite Educational Institute Inter-Mennonite Abbotsford 1944- Evergreen
    1965-1970
    South Abbotsford Bible School
    later Bethel Bible School    		 Mennonite Brethren Abbotsford 1936-1941, 1943
    Yarrow Bible School Mennonite Brethren Yarrow 1935

    Alberta

    School Name Merger history Conference Affiliation/s Location Years in Operation Yearbooks in Collection
    Alberta Mennonite High School Mennonite Brethren Coaldale 1946-1964 Quo Vadis
    1953, 1954, 1956-1958, 1960
    Bethesda Bible School Mennonite Brethren Gem 1933-mid 1900s
    Coaldale Bible School
    (also known as Alberta Mennonite Brethren Bible Institute)
    (possibly also known as Morning Star Bible School)    		 Mennonite Brethren Coaldale 1929-1965 The Torchbearer
    1954, 1956-1963
    Indexed: 1956, 1957, 1962,1963
    Countess Bible School later part of Menno Bible Institute General Conference Countess 1939->1940
    Crowfoot Bible School Mennonite Brethren Crowfoot 1936-1937
    La Glace Bible School Mennonite Brethren LaGlace 1933-1947
    Menno Bible Institute General Conference Didsbury 1937-1966 1962
    Menno Simons Christian School Calgary Mennonite churches Calgary 1983- 1988, 1997
    Mennonite Bible School General Conference Coaldale 1935-
    Mountain View Bible School/College United Missionary Didsbury 1921 or 1926 – undated issue
    Rosemary Bible School General Conference Rosemary 1932-1947
    Springridge German Bible School General Conference Springridge 1935->1940
    Vauxhall Bible School Mennonite Brethren Vauxhall 1937-1943
    Wembley Bible School
    (also known as Hoffnungsfeld Bible School)    		 General Conference Wembley 1933->1940

    Manitoba

    School Name Merger history Conference Affiliation/s Location Years in Operation Yearbooks in Collection*
    Canadian Mennonite Bible College later part of Canadian Mennonite University General Conference Winnipeg 1947-1999 1950-1970, 1972, 1977-1978, 1980, 1988-1989, 1995-1996
    Indexed: 1956
    Canadian Mennonite University formed from Canadian Mennonite Bible College, Mennonite Brethren Bible College & Menno Simons College Inter-Mennonite Winnipeg 1999- 2000
    Concord College/Mennonite Brethren Bible College later part of Canadian Mennonite University Mennonite Brethren 1992-1999
    Elim Bible Institute/School/Christian Education Centre Inter-Mennonite? Gretna & later Altona 1929-1931, 1937-1963 , 1975-1988 Eilm Palme
    1953, 1955, 1957, 1959-1960, 1962, 1964-1966
    Indexed: 1964
    Menno Simons College formerly Mennonite Studies Centre of the University of Winnipeg? Mennonite Brethren Winnipeg ????-1999
    Mennonite Bible School General Conference Winnipeg 1934-
    Mennonite Brethren Bible College later Concord College Mennonite Brethren 1944-1992 Rainbow
    1946-1962, 1969, 1977
    Indexed: 1948
    Mennonite Brethren Bible School Mennonite Brethren The Torch
    1948, 1952
    Mennonite Collegiate Institute 1955, 1957, 1960, 1962-1966
    Mennonitische Religionsschule General Conference Winnipeg 1932-
    Peniel Bible School Mennonite Brethren Winkler 1925-
    St. Elizabeth Bible School General Conference St. Elizabeth 1937-
    Steinbach Bible College/Institute/Academy/School Evangelical Mennonite Church, Chortita Mennonite Church, Evangelical Mennonite Mission Church, Christian Fellowship Church of Steinbach, Steijnbach Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Steinbach 1931-1932, 1939- The Star
    1964, 1970
    Winkler Bible Institute Winkler The Key
    1970-1972, 1975, 1979
    Winkler Bible School Mennonite Brethren Winkler 1925- The Morning Star
    1940, 1946, 1948-1951-1956, 1960-1965, 1967-1969, 1991
    Winkler High School Winkler The Winkler Collegian
    1947, 1949
    Winnipeg Bible School Mennonite Brethren Winnipeg 1930-1972
    Winnipeg German Bible School Mennonite Brethren Winnipeg 1929-1942
    Winnipeg Bible College/Institute/Training School ** Winnipeg 1925 The King’s Herald
    1949, 1965

    Saskatchewan

    School Name Merger history Conference Affiliation/s Location Years in Operation Yearbooks in Collection
    Aberdeen Bible School Mennonite Brethren Aberdeen 1934-
    Bethany Bible College/School/Institute formed from Herbert Bible School Mennonite Brethren & Evangelical Mennonite Mission Church Hepburn 1927- The Ray
    1951-1956, 1961, 1967-1968, 1971, 1974-1975, 1977-1978, 1981-1982, 1991
    Drake Bible School General Conference Drake 1939-
    Glenbush Bible School Mennonite Brethren Glenbush 1932-
    Herbert Bible School later part of Bethany Bible Institute Mennonite Brethren Herbert 1913-1919, 1921-1930, 1932-1957
    Rosthern Bible School General Conference Rosthern 1932-1961 The Torch
    1956, 1957
    Rosthern Junior College
    (formerly German-English Academy)    		 General Conference Rosthern 1905- Link
    1951-1962, 1964-1967, 1969, 1971-1972, 1974-1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1996
    Indexed: 1971, 1972, 1974
    Swift Current Bible School/ Institute General Conference Swift Current 1936-1996 Ambassador
    1954-1955, 1962, 1965-1968, 1970-1971, 1973-1974, 1977-1981, 1984, 1989, 1992, 1994-1996
    Swift Current Mennonite Brethren Bible School Mennonite Brethren Swift Current 1936- 1960, 1965-1968
    Tabor Bible School/Dalmeny Bible School Mennonite Brethren Dalmeny 1928-1951, 1952-1954 Indexed: 1931

    Ontario

    School Name Merger history Conference Affiliation/s Location Years in Operation Yearbooks in Collection
    Aylmer Bible School (Evangelical Mennonite Missionary Conference) located in Aylmer Mennonite Brethren Aylmer 19??
    Eden Bible School
    later known as Eden Christian College -ok    		 Eden High School added, 1945
    same as MBBI below?    		 Mennonite Brethren Virgil 1942-1955
    Eden Christian College -ok Mennonite Brethren Virgil 1955-
    Eden High School -ok Mennonite Brethren St. Catherines 1987
    Emmanuel Bible College-ok United Missionary Church (later Evangelical Missionary Church) Stouffville/Kitchener 1940-
    Leamington Bible School General Conference Leamington 1936-
    Mennonite Brethren Bible Institute same as Eden Bible School above? Mennonite Brethren Virgil 1938-
    Ontario Mennonite Bible School/Winter Bible School Mennonite Church Kitchener 1907-
    United Mennonite Bible School General Conference St. Catherines 1950-1956 1954
    Vineland Bible School General Conference & Mennonite Brethren Vineland 1936 or 1939-
    Virgil Bible and High School Virgil 1946

    Quebec

    • Institut Biblique Laval (Mennonite Brethren) founded in in St-Laurent – ????

    * Graduation year
    ** May not be Mennonite or may actually be Winnipeg German Bible College

    Last updated 27 Aug 2010

    General Queries/Comments: Contact MHSA

  5. 1847 Molotschna Colony Voters’ List

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    Extracted by Tim Janzen

    Sorted by Village – Sorted by Surname – Introduction

    Sorted according to Village (Original)

    Sorted according to Surname (Modified)

    A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – V – W

  7. Mennonite Genealogy Data Index

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    Here’s the ultimate place to visit to find where the good stuff is – where you can find Mennonite genealogy (family history) data.

    Use the picklist to the left to select the geography of interest. As soon as you left-click onto a locality, your page will refresh to those resources. You’ll find the exact same picklist on each page in the same location – so you can’t get lost!

    There are approximately 1,400 discrete listings of community-specific data for Mennonite genealogy

    DNA testing of Mennonite lineages – this project is being managed independently by Glenn Penner, but we’re happy to provide attention to it.

    Mennonite Historical AtlasAnd, if you really don’t know your geography – we highly recommend William Schroeder & Helmut T. Huebert’s Mennonite Historical Atlas, 2nd ed. It and other Mennonite paper publications are available from Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta (MHSA). Some of his maps have been captured and placed online by the Mennonite Heritage Centre.

    There is also an excellent online Gazetteer for Prussia by Stphen S. Barthel that shows villages in their province, district, parish & government office context. For a good online map to use in conjunction with the Gazeteer, see Ludwig Ravenstein’s Map of the German Empire found on the University of Wisconsin website.

    GRANDMA 6 ($35 CDN) DVD data disks are now available to Canadians from MHSA . Americans may order directly from the California Mennonite Historical Society.

    Need help with your research, a colleague to talk with about family history methods, etc? We suggest that you visit a local Mennonite Historical Society online and join them:

    Some Mennonite history books have been placed online – in their entirety. Check out these:

    A bit irrelevant, but here’s your chance to find out about

  8. Children Vaccinated Against Smallpox, Chortitza Colony in South Russia, 1814

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    GEDCOM Files . . .I have also created a gedcom file which may be downloaded of the merged modified version of the data taken from the two lists. In this gedcom file I have arbitrarily chosen to show all of the children as having been born about 1813 even though their ages aren’t given in the original lists. I have added the name of the village in the “immigration location” field in the gedcom files. To search the gedcom file most effectively I suggest researchers import it into the Brother’s Keeper program and conduct searches using the name codes as found in Grandma database.

    Right click to save to your hard drive:

    Extracted by Tim Janzen

    This site makes available various versions of lists of children vaccinated against smallpox in the Chortitza Colony in 1814. The vaccination lists contain the names of children who were vaccinated, their fathers’ names, and the village that they were from, but does not include their ages. The original documents were written in both German and Russian versions and may be found on frames 264 to 273 and frames 351 to 356 of File #195 of the microfilm of selected files from Odessa Archives, Fund 6, Inventory 1. Almost all of the children immunized seem to have been born after 1809 and most were probably 1 to 3 years old.

    There are two different immunization lists containing overlapping information. One list covers vaccinations between March and May, 1814 and the other list is a summary of all immunizations between January and July, 1814. The first list contains 85 children and the second contains 97. The two lists contain some discrepancies. It appears that those creating the second list (apparently Abraham Leike and Michael Kropp) made errors when they copied information from the March to May list to create the January to July list. Thus, in the cases where there is discrepant information I believe that the March to May list is generally more accurate since it seems to have contained the original information.

    In one case I suspect that as the information was being copied from the one document to create the other, an extra son (Julius Peters, son of Peter Peters of Kronsweide) was incorrectly added to the January to July list. I suspect this Julius’ surname was actually Jantzen and that the 2 subsequent children in the March to May list (Franz and Jacob) had their surnames incorrectly copied to the January to July list. This theory is supported by independent information from the 1814 Kronsweide census published by Benjamin Unruh. It also appears that the name of Johann Schroeder’s daughter Sara of Kronsthal was inserted into the January to July list between the names of Martin Siemens’ daughters Katharina and Elisabeth making it appear that Elisabeth was the daughter of Johann Schroeder when in fact she was the daughter of Martin Siemens. This theory is supported by the independent information from the 1814 Kronsthal census published by Benjamin Unruh, by the fact that the word “daughters” preceeds the name of Martin Siemens’ daughter Katharina in the January to July vaccination list suggesting that he had more than one daughter vaccinated and by the fact that Johann Schroeder only had one daughter (Sara) listed in the March to May list.

    There are 3 children mentioned in the March to May list who aren’t included on the January to July list (Susana Friesen of Chortitza, Jacob Heinrichs of Kronsweide, and Heinrich Penner of Rosenthal). There are 15 children listed on the January to July list who aren’t found on the March to May list. Thus, a total of 99 different children are found on the two lists, not counting the “extra” son Julius Peters who appears to have been added erroneously to the January to July list.

    It appears that those creating the second list (apparently Abraham Leike and Michael Kropp) made errors when they copied information from the March to May list to create the January to July list. Thus, in the cases where there is discrepant information I believe that the March to May list is generally more accurate since it seems to have contained the original information. In one case I suspect that as the information was being copied from the one document to create the other, an extra son (Julius Peters, son of Peter Peters of Kronsweide) was incorrectly added to the January to July list. I suspect this Julius’ surname was actually Jantzen and that the 2 subsequent children in the March to May list (Franz and Jacob) had their surnames incorrectly copied to the January to July list. This theory is supported by independent information from the 1814 Kronsweide census published by Benjamin Unruh. There are 3 children mentioned in the March to May list who aren’t included on the January to July list (Susana Friesen of Chortitza, Jacob Heinrichs of Kronsweide, and Heinrich Penner of Rosenthal). There are 15 children listed on the January to July list who aren’t found on the March to May list. Thus, a total of 99 different children are found on the two lists, not counting the “extra” son Julius Peters who appears to have been added erroneously to the January to July list.

    These lists clearly contain only a small portion of the children born between 1809 and 1814 in the Chortitza Colony. No children at all were listed from the villages of Burwalde and Nieder Chortitz and it seems clear that the number of children from Schoenhorst, Neuendorf, Schoenwiese, and Einlage only represented a fraction of the children born between 1809 and 1814 in those villages. Even though this data is very incomplete it still provides us with new information about some children born prior to 1814 not found in previously published censuses for the Chortitza Colony.

    The data from these immunization lists is available for review in the form of tables of the data or as a gedcom file. There are tables showing the original data for both the March to May list and the January to July list. I also created a table which contains a merged modified version of the two lists. In this table I placed in parentheses the information from one of the lists which I felt was likely erroneous if there were discrepancies between the two lists. In most cases the information shown in parentheses comes from the January to July list. I have also modified some given names and surnames so that they would be in a more commonly used form of that name.

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

    © 2001 Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta
    Last Updated 9 May 2001

    General Queries/Comments: Contact MHSA