Several years ago I wanted to find relatives of Bernhard von Platen (1733–1774), an officer from Pomerania who arrived with colonists in the Volga region and shared with them not the simplest fate.
Together with my colleague Nina Paulsen, we wrote letters to all the Platens in Germany and found out that even the archivist of this numerous noble family knows nothing about Bernhard and, accordingly, found nothing on the huge family tree that he tirelessly updates. But our letter stirred up many von Platens, and one of them found in his archive information about an officer relative missing in the turbulent times of the Seven Years' War. Thus another small branch appeared on the family tree, albeit a 'dead end': the colonist and teacher Bernhard von Platen left no descendants. However, he set forth the story of his resettlement to Russia in poetic form and became author number one in the literature of Russian Germans.
In modern Germany, there are few professional researchers engaged in genealogy. This endeavor is labor-intensive and does not always justify the effort and time spent. Therefore, it is the domain of enthusiasts. One can find something substantial in medieval archives only about those who accomplished something significant. Among the people who were literate then, these were kings, nobles, and clergymen. The common people were of little interest to chroniclers. As is well known, surnames did not exist at that time. But with the development of market relations, people traveling to neighboring cities and countries for business received additional nicknames indicating their place of origin, occupation, or special qualities. Thus, the surnames of most commoners appeared and were passed on to their children. And because until the end of the 19th century, up to the appearance of the Duden dictionary, in German lands people wrote mainly as they spoke and heard, the spelling of the same surname could be different in different regions.
In the 16th century, church books began to appear in Catholic and Evangelical churches. Therefore, successful research in genealogy is possible from that time onward.
The books recorded data on baptism (often identical to the date of birth), marriage, and death of a person. Entries were made as events occurred and where there was free space in the book. At baptism, the names of the child, father, and godparent were recorded. The mother's maiden name was withheld. Maiden names were only mentioned in marriage records. Weddings at that time usually took place at the bride's place of residence (birth), where the corresponding entries were made in the church book. Present-day researchers studying the origin of surnames, unaware of these subtleties, can quickly run into a dead end in their searches.
The next important evidence are documents of inheritance of any property. Also useful in genealogical research are recruitment lists, which registered all healthy young men. In Evangelical regions of Germany in the 18th century, funeral sermons, which pastors read at funerals, were popular. They summarized information about the deceased. Sheets with such sermons were usually given to the relatives. As a source of information, they are very valuable.
Unfortunately, many archival materials perished in the flames of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), so for most researchers the search ends with this period. As a rule, only nobles were able to save their personal documents, so their genealogies can be traced back to earlier times. Many lists of wealthy burghers and university students (with surname, age, and origin) have been preserved. The registration of all inhabitants in the German lands (occupied by Napoleon) began only at the beginning of the 19th century.
In many church books of the second half of the 18th century, one can find records of marriages of couples who enlisted for resettlement to Russia. Also preserved are lists of those who traveled there by land or sea, and those who arrived at the site of future colonies. In Ukrainian and Russian archives, there are materials of all revisions (conducted there in the 19th century) and the agricultural census of 1917.
Recently, the fourth volume of lists of the first colonists who arrived on the Volga in 1764–1767 ('Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet: 1764–1767') was published, covering 24 colonies from Reinhard (Osinovka) to Warenburg (Privalnaya). These lists can be viewed at the traveling exhibition of the Landsmannschaft of Germans from Russia 'People on the Move. History and Modernity of Russian Germans'.
The exhibition is regularly held in schools as well. One can imagine the shock of local schoolchildren when one of them suddenly discovers his entire genealogy, almost back to the tenth generation. For example, opening the list of settlers at random, one can read the following: 'the colony of Susannental (also Winkelmann) was founded on August 3, 1767.' Then follows a list of all the first settlers, and among them: 'Karl von Winkelmann (31 years old), Catholic, lieutenant from Graz, wife Maria (28 years old), arrived in the colony on August 3, 1767, they received two horses from the Saratov Guardianship Office...'.
Thus, in the lists one can find first name, last name, age, religion, learn where the settler came from, find out profession, family status and form of assistance from the Russian state. The colonists arrived not only from Hesse or Swabia, as is often mentioned regarding the origin of the Volga Germans, but also from many other corners of the German lands: from Bavaria, Franconia, the Palatinate, Saxony, Holstein, Alsace, etc. There were also people from France, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland. The already mentioned Karl von Winkelmann arrived from Austrian Graz. By the way, not only peasants moved to Russia. Among the colonists were representatives of almost all professions of Europe at that time. Some Russian German may discover an ancestor who was a jeweler or weaver in his homeland, and learned farming on the banks of the Volga. The relocation lasted many months and was accompanied by considerable hardships, so that losses among the colonists exceeded 10% of those who set out on the long journey. Therefore, in the lists of first settlers one can often find widowed or orphaned.
When studying one's genealogy, it must be taken into account that the number of ancestors (or descendants) increases with each generation. In addition, ancestors could move from one colony to another.
As Russkaya Germaniya notes, thanks to the name and geographic index, which all four volumes are equipped with in Russian and German (Vol. 1: Anton – Franozen; Vol. 2: Galka – Kutter; Vol. 3: Laub – Proiss; Vol. 4: Reinhard – Varenburg), the search can be very successful.
More detailed information can be obtained by contacting directly the authors of this unique study: Nordost-Institut, Calsowstrasse 54, 37085 Goettingen, E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected].