Mennonite Deaths Reported to the Chortitza Village Soviet: 1925 – 1928

By Glenn H. Penner (gpenner@uoguelph.ca) and Nikolai Penner

Over the past few years the Mormons have been microfilming selected records from archives of the former Soviet Union. Several of these films contain Mennonite material. One such film is LDS #2392944 (item#5) which is supposed to contain deaths for Chortitza for 1921 to 1928. In fact some years contain death certificates for other areas and do not contain Mennonite deaths at all. The death certificates registered at the Chortitza village soviet are identified according to “nationality”. Mennonites appear to be grouped with Germans. I have been able to identify 52 certificates which are likely for Mennonites. For some family names it is difficult to distinguish between Mennonites and Germans. It should be pointed out that just because the deaths were reported to the Chortitza office does not mean the deceased died in the village of Chortitza. There is evidence from other sources indicating that some of these people died in other villages, such as Rosenthal.

All certificates labelled as German were scanned by me (Glenn Penner) and translated by Nikolai Penner. I then removed those “Germans” with family names that were obviously not traditionally Mennonite. In some cases entries in the certificates were not readable and were not translated. If anyone wishes to have a copy of a particular scan of the original Russian certificate please contact me at the email above. Please send any comments or corrections directly to me.

An index with links to the translated certificates is provided below. I have provided standardized Mennonite family names in the index as well as the closest contemporary first names. The comments are mine and there are a few translation comments by Nikolai at the end of the certificates.

Family Name First Name & Patonymic Age or Birth Year Death Year My Comments Link
Kehler Rosalia Christian 46 1925 "Keller" 1
Wilms Johann Johann 0 1925 "Wilm" 2
Janzen Helena Jacob 1888 1925   3
Wiens Hilda Johan 1925 1926   4
Wilms Anna Jacob 65 1926   5
Schultz Heinrich Eduard 1925 1926   6
Wiebe Wilhelm Heinrich 65 1926   7
Suderman Helena Johann 43 1926   8
Hamm Martha Johann 26 1926 "Hann" 9
Heese Heinrich Johann 65 1926 "Heze" 10
Koop Abram Abram 12 1926   11
Andres Johann Johann 26 1926   12
Penner Peter Heinrich 1 1926   13
Teichroeb Abram Jacob 13 1926 "Teichred" 14
Braun Peter Frantz 30 1926   15
Wiebe Jacob Johann 62 1926   16
Braun David Jacob 0 1926   17
Neufeld Peter 51 1927   18
Kroeger Helena   1927 child 19
Dyck Katharina 74 1927   20
Dyck Katharina 74 1927 duplicate 21
Andres Anganetha Abram 76 1927   22
Siemens Anna   1927 child "Simon" 23
Andres Anganetha 76 1927 duplicate 24
Penner Jacob Johann 6 1927   25
Pauls Abram Peter 65 1927   26
Toews Helena 8 1927   27
Thiessen Abram 27 1927   28
Wilms Heinrich 27 1927   29
Olfert Heinrich 25 1927   30
Sawatsky Johann 81 1927   31
Kliewer Cornelius 39 1927   32
Hamm Jacob 19 1927 Gamm 33
Ens Jacob 1 1927   34
Winter Heinrich 56 1927   35
Ens Isaak   1927 newborn 36
Neufeld Peter 51 1927 duplicate 37
Krueger Helena   1927 child "Krugin" 38
Dyck Anna 49 1928   39
Reimer Maria   1928 newborn "Reiner" 40
Berg Peter 30 1928   41
Banmann David 57 1928   42
Peters Peter   1928 newborn 43
Buhler Margaretha 1 1928   44
Penner Jacob 7 1928   45
Schultz Maria   1928 child 46
Hamm David Abram 65 1928   47
Pries Elisabeth Peter   1928 child "Preis" 48
Braun Abram   1928 no age 49
Hamm Heinrich 80 1928   50
Lehn Maria Isaac 63 1928 "Lenn" 51
Thiessen Peter 71 1928   52
Page created 9 April 2009; HTML by Richard D. Thiessen


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