The committee was able to enlist the aid of the following translators: Margarete Bergmann, Elisabeth Driedger, Gerhard Dyck, Hilda Epp, Ella Federau, John Franz, Lily Kliewer, Victor Kliewer, Arthur Kroeger, Franz Pauls, Agnes Roesler, Katie Rose, Gerhard Thiessen, Peter von Kampen, Helen Voss and Helen Wiebe. Nettie Neufeld translated the German comments added later.
Photocopies of the English translation are now available at the Mennonite Heritage Centre and the Centre for M.B. Studies, both in Winnipeg. Individuals may also purchase a complete copy of the 1835 Molotschna census in English. The price is $40.00 in Canada and $45.00 elsewhere, including postage.
Rempel has come across a number of Mennonite documents in the State Archives of Dnepropetrovsk region (in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine), where there is a fund of the Ekaterinoslav bureau of foreign settlers of the Southern Kraj (Southern Region) of Russia (Fund Nr. 134). This fund contains the documents of years 1781 - 1857, concerning the colonies of Mennonites, German Catholics, German Lutherans, Greeks, Bulgarians and other foreigners who lived in Ekaterinoslav and Tavricheskaya gubernia's (provinces). The documents concerning Chortitza and Molotschna colonies are mainly from the years 1795-1816.
According to Rempel, the most interesting files of this fund, which contain the lists of Chortitza Mennonites, are the following: # 18 - Nominal list of Mennonites of all Chortitza colonies (in Russian). For every family member the name, surname, the age and profession are listed for 1795; # 21 - the list of Chortitz settlers who have received a loan in 1797; # 26 - nominal lists of newly arrived settlers in 1798; # 169 - the list of Mennonites of Chortitz colonies in 1807; # 206 - the full list of all Chortitza Mennonites (in German): name, surname and age of all family members, and economical showings for 1808; # 405 - the same data for 1814; # 491 - index of the revisions lists of all Chortitza colonies (in Russian) - only the names and surnames of the heads of families for 1816; # 498/b, vol. 3 - the full list of all Chortitza Mennonites (in German): name, surname and age of all family members, and economical showings for 1816; and # 752 - register of births of Chortitza colonies, by colonies and dates , for 1822; # 980 - the list of outstanding Mennonite households (in Russian) for 1834.
Peter Rempel has also come across a number of Mennonite documents in the State Archive of Zaporozhye region. The documents are mainly of the middle and the end of 19th and of 20th century. An example of the types of materials located include: Fund Nr. 12, inventory 2, files Nr: # 101 - revisions book of Schoenwiese: first names and age of all family members for 1816; # 246 - revisions book of Schoenwiese: first names and either age or the year of birth of all family members for 1850; # 273 - revisions book of Schoenwiese: first names and either age or the year of birth of all family members for 1858 (the data for other colonies are also available for 1816, 1850 and 1858). Files without a fund number: "Lists of birth records of German population in Higher-Chortitz area": (birth date, names, surnames and patronymics of parents, village, parish) for 1896-1911; "Total family lists" for many villages: (names and surnames of husband and wife, marriage date, names and surnames of their parents, date and place of birth, date and place of baptism, information about the moving of a family, and the same information about all children) end of 19th century - 1920s. Fund Nr. 121, inventory 1, file # 79 - the census of the German population of Chortitz volost (region): (name, surname, patronymic, birth date and profession of the head of the family; names and birth dates of the other family members) for 1920.
Rempel reports that these documents are not listed in reference guides to the archives, and that he has learned about them mainly from unpublished internal inventories and from personal contacts with the archives staff. He also stated that these documents are being processed, inventoried and entered into a computer. When this work is done, they will publish some of these documents.
Individuals from Winnipeg have regular contact with Peter Rempel, and it is certain that more documents will be uncovered in the near future.
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