The Complete 1776 Census of Mennonites in West Prussia

Version 3, June 2010

compiled by

The following table contains the census of Mennonites in the former West Prussia, taken in 1776. In 1772 a large part of the Polish kingdom was partitioned between Russia, Austria and Prussia. The majority of Mennonites living in Poland became subjects of the Prussian king Fredrick the Great (Friedrich II), and residents of the province of West Prussia. In 1776 a census of Mennonites in the newly acquired territory was undertaken. This census was known as the Special Consignation aller in West Preussen befindlichen Mennonisten Familien im Jahr 1776. Aus den von den Mennonistischen Vermahnern eingelieferten Nachrichten gefertigt vom Intendanten Schlemmer. The census does not include the city of Danzig, the Thorn territory, the Neumark (Brandenburg) area, and the region known as the Danziger Nehrung. The latter region was acquired by Prussia in 1793, and a census can be found at www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/1793_Danzig_Census.htm . The Mennonites in the East Prussian regions of Königsberg and Tilsit are not included here. They are enumerated in a separate 1777 census of Mennonites in East Prussia. The 1776 census contains information on 2638 families and accounts for 12,186 people. This census has appeared in several publications. I have taken my information from appendix 7 of Horst Penner's book Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten, with the help of an old template prepared by Alan Peters.

In the second revision (version 3) I have added new information from West Prussian church records to a significant number of entries. I have also identified several hundred household heads in the Grandma database by including their Grandma numbers in the comments column. Changes since version 2 are highlighted.

If anyone has comments, corrections, or additional bits of information, please contact me. I plan on updating the census in about a year's time.

The Complete 1776 Census of Mennonites in West Prussia (with changes since version 2 highlighted).

The Complete 1776 Census of Mennonites in West Prussia (no highlights).

The June 2003 revision (version 2) of the Complete 1776 Census of Mennonites in West Prussia.

I have broken up the census into 14 columns. Here are brief descriptions of each column:

·  #: the identification number used in the GRANDMA database to identify family names

·  Last Name: the last name of the head of the family

·  First: the first name of the head of the family

·  Location: the village of residence of the family

·  Occupation: the occupation of the head of the family

·  H: counts the husband of the family

·  W: counts the wife

·  S: counts the number of sons

·  D: counts the number of daughters

·  M: counts the male servants in the household

·  F: counts the female servants in the household

·  Land: indicates the landowning status of the family

·  Class: denotes how the Prussian officials classified each family economically

·  Comments.

Here are more detailed explanations of some of the column headings:

#

For more information see the GRANDMA 6 users manual at http://calmenno.org/grandma/index.htm

Location

For more information on which Mennonite churches to which the people in each village belonged see: http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/1820danz.htm and http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/1820mar.htm . Also see http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/prussia/West_Prussian_Mennonite_Villages_Alph.htm for more information.

Comments

Comments found in the census are “in quotes”. My comments usually contain additional information obtained from existing West Prussian church records. I have not included the details of the information found in the church records. This you will have to find yourselves.

The Mennonite congregations are as follows:

I also indicate Lutheran or Catholic church registers where I have found references to people in the census (usually deaths). For example "(Luth/Zeyer)" means that the person is also found in the Lutheran church records of Zeyer. Grandma database numbers are now included for many of the household heads. These were obtained from the Grandma 6 database.

Page created 7 August 2010; html by Richard D. Thiessen

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