«Abendt», «Maria» «Johann» - Volhynia

hardships and deprivations along the way, many people fell victim to hunger,
sickness, especially typhoid fever, and death. Many children were born in
wagons and boxcars and the dead were hurriedly buried by the side of the road.
The deportees were transported over many thousands of km and eventually
unloaded in Siberia, Central Asia and the Ural region, although some were
allowed to settle in Ukraine and Russia, some miles from home. In their new
and strange environment they were required to work at a variety of jobs in order
to survive. Most of them fared badly, but with the fall of the Tsarist government
in 1917, they soon began trickling back home. The majority returned in 1918,
though some did not make it back until 1920 and later. No sooner was one war
finished than another began. It was called the Civil War between the Whites and
the Reds. During this time the Volhynians were caught in the in-fighting and had
to defend themselves as there was no longer any authority. At the same time the
Volhynians were often caught in the chaotic upheavals between the newly
resurrected Poland and Russia.
(Excerpt from the book The Old Country by Donald N. Miller)
LIST OF LAND EXPROPRIATED
The list of those whose land was to be expropriated originally appeared in the
Volhyn’s Gubernia News (No. 56) on June 2, 1916. It is important to remember
that this is a land expropriation listing, not a deportation listing, although most, if
not all of the people whose land was taken away from them, were eventually
deported. Even then the list is not 100% complete or accurate, as a number of
discrepancies in the various newspaper listings have been found. Some
corrections of the most obvious errors have been made in this listing. The list
has also been culled of duplicate and undecipherable names. Also, only the
landowners or their heirs are listed, not renters, which means that there were
many more German colonists living within these boundary zones when the law
took effect than what is found here.
This lists identifies the name of the head of the family, including the patronymic
name (father’s name), and the family name. In the original newspaper article, the
name of the village where the land was located and the amount of land
expropriated is also given. In 1993 I originally obtained the listing of the
landowners in the newspaper from the State Archives in Zhitomir and made it
available to the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia in Lincoln,
Nebraska. It was subsequently was translated by Brent Alan Mai of Purdue
University (1997). It should be noted that where a name is not certain, it is
followed by a single question mark. (Editor’s note: The listing of names is used
by permission of AHSGR and Brent Mai, May 2005).