[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Schmidt of Rozyszcze Parish

[Ron Neuman]

Jerry - To the best of my knowledge, there are no Moravian Church 
records in Volhynia.  As I understand it, the Moravian Church was 
unable to get official recognition from the Russian government, 
therefore all of their records (births, marriages and baptisms) are 
recorded in Lutheran parish records in Volhynia.  I have found all of 
my Moravian ancestral families from Volhynia in the Lutheran records 
in the St. Petersburg files.  The inability of the Moravians to 
obtain official Russian government recognition as a denomination 
separate from the Lutherans is considered to be one of the reasons 
for the exodus of the Moravians from Volhynia in the 1890's.  The 
first migration was to Brazil in the early 1890's, and a second 
migration was to western Canada (specifically Alberta) starting in 
1894 when they founded the settlement areas of Bruderfeld and 
Bruderheim.  The Moravian settlement in Brazil (Bruderthal was the 
name) eventually was absorbed by other religions (most likely 
Lutheran); however, the Moravian congregations in Alberta expanded 
and are still very much in existence (and in fact they have an 
excellent set of church records dating back to 1895).  In fact their 
early church records in Canada give the places of birth of all of the 
members of the congregation who were born in either Volhynia or Poland.

There are some scattered bits of information (such as one listing of 
Moravian families in Volhynia compiled by a Moravian minister named 
Steinberg) containing names of Moravians in Volhynia.  I believe that 
Virginia Less and Cy Harke have done some work with these lists.

With respect to the Moravians in Poland, I also think that there were 
no specific Moravian records, but rather you will also find those 
families in the Lutheran records (even if they were affiliated with 
the Moravian Church).  That has certainly been the case for my 
ancestral families that I have traced from Volhynia back into Poland 
(Lipperts and Henkelmanns).  They came to Alberta in 1894 as 
Moravians, but they are in the Lutheran church records both in 
Volhynia (from the 1870's to 1880's) and in Poland (from the late 
1700's to the 1870's).

Jerry also mentions that they might have converted to become 
Baptists.  I do not have enough knowledge of Baptist records to 
comment on whether that is an option worth trying.


At 06:42 PM 9/6/2005, Jerry Frank wrote:
>At 03:32 PM 06/09/2005, Marlene Dopp wrote:
> >I have a marriage record of Gottlieg Schmidt and Christina Gering
> >(dau of Jacob and Friedericke ?), 18 Apr. 1872 (FHL film 2380026)
> >from Rozyszcze Parish.  They had a son John Ferdinand born 31 May
> >1879 born somewhere in Volhynia, but doesn't seem to be the same
> >parish.  Does anyone have any suggestions where I might look
> >next?  I can only assume they moved on.  That family left Volhynia
> >to emigrate to Sauk County Wisconsisn in 1890.
> >
> >Marlene K Dopp
>
>
>Can you tell us a bit about your search process.  Using the St. Pete
>files, I found the marriage but I don't see them having any children,
>at least not as baptized in the Lutheran Church.  What is the source
>of your birth info?  How do you know it is not in the same
>parish?  Could the family have converted to Baptist or perhaps
>Moravian Bretheren?
>
>
>
>
>Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
>FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca
>
>
>
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