Felsenbach was one of several villages which made up the Mennonite settlement of Borozenko, near Nikopol' in Ekaterinoslav province. The settlement was formed in 1865-66 by Mennonites from Chortitza Colony, who founded the villages of Nikolaithal, Felsenbach and Schoendorf. At the same time, 120 Kleine Gemeinde families from the Molotschna Colony founded the villages of Steinbach, Blumenhof, Heuboden, Rosenfeld and Annafeld. In 1874-75 nearly all of the Kleine Gemeinde members migrated to North America and their homes were sold to others, including Mennonites from Chortitza Colony. Initially Mennonite Church members were served by the Chortitza elder. Later on they became affiliated with the Neu-Chortitza (Novo Chortitza) congregation in the Baratov Colony. In 1915 there were 120 families in the colony, with a total population of 600. The inhabitants of Borozenko were evacuated during World War II and the colony ceased to exist.
In 1999 Hermann Schirmacher became aware of a family register in the possession of Katharina Thiessen of Winnipeg, who had received the book from her father Dietrich Thiessen in February 1909. The data was without a doubt taken from church registers in the colony, but it is unclear if the data includes only families from Felsenbach or if other families are included as well. Hermann transcribed the data and created a GEDCOM file which he has made available to interested parties. I have converted the GEDCOM file to HTML format with Hermann's permission.
Felsenbach (Borozenko Colony) Family Register
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