Mennonite
Historical
Society
of Alberta

January 16, 2014 2:36 pm

As found in the records of the Guardianship Committee for Foreign Settlers in Southern Russia (Fund 6, Inventory 5, File 278) in the Odessa Region State Archives, Odessa, Ukraine. Translated from German in March 2004 by Tim Janzen, Portland, Oregon.

Explanatory comments by Tim Janzen:

This document provides information about a group of 73 families totalling 338 people who planned to settle in the Kuban Colony in the Caucasus Region in South Russia. All of the people included on the list were Mennonite Brethren and all were from the Molotschna Colony. The document is found among a large collection of documents pertaining to the Mennonite Brethren in File 278. The list is found on pages 161 to 173 in the original file and may be found on frames 292 through 315 on the microfilm of this file.

The list itself is not dated, but it follows a document that was signed by the head of each family that is dated 30 Dec 1863. Based on a comparison of the ages given for the people found in the list with the birth dates from other sources for these people it appears that the list was likely compiled about May or June of 1864.

It appears that some of the families on this list did not follow through with their stated intentions to settle in the Kuban Colony since only 67 families are said to have settled there by 1866 (The Kuban Settlement by C. P. Toews, Heinrich Friesen, and Arnold Dyck, p. 14). In a list of 67 families living in the Kuban Colony in 1869 that is also found in File 278, only 53 families found in this 1864 list are found also found in the 1869 list. Apparently the other 20 families did not follow through with their stated intentions of moving to the Kuban Colony. [See also Kuban Census, 1869]

In this translation, the names of the Mennonites and the locations are shown with the exact same spelling as they appear in the original document. The words “wife”, “son”, and “daughter” have been abbreviated as “w”, “s”, and “d”, respectively. Information that has been placed in brackets does not appear in the original but has been added for clarification. There appear to be a number of spelling errors in the original document. For instance, the first name of Mr. Friesen, whose family is #32 in the list, is likely to have been Martin rather than Matin as given in the original. Also, the first name of Mr. Voth, whose family is #41 in the list, is likely to have been Andreas rather than Adreas as given in the original. Various locations are also slightly misspelled. The age of Heinrich Boldt’s daughter Anna found in family #23 appears to have been incorrectly given as 1 year in the list. Other sources including the 1869 Kuban Colony Census suggest that she was about 7 years old in 1864.

To provide additional information I think would be helpful to researchers I have added two columns on the left side of the table that are not found in the original document. The first column denotes which families found in this list are also found in the 1869 Kuban Colony Census. The second column provides the GRANDMA number of the head of the household if they are currently found in the GRANDMA database.

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

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

Alf Redekopp and Jake Wiens of Winnipeg, Manitoba and Elli Wise of Frankfort, Kentucky provided helpful suggestions for the improvement of this translation.

© 2003-04 Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta
Last Updated 6 Apr 2004

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