| 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.
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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