 Documents of
the Molotschna colonies were protected by Peter Braun from 1914 to 1924, but the Soviet
government finally discovered and confiscated them (in the 30s?) It was widely
believed that they had been destroyed, but in 1990, Prof. Harvey Dyck of Toronto
discovered this massive collection in the Odessa archives. They have since be
microfilmed and are slowly being studied. The records of the Board of Guardians, who
governed the Mennonites during the majority of the 19th century, were also located; they
have not yet been successfully microfilmed.
One of the most valuable items in the collection is the 1835 Molotschna census. It
has been translated and available in North America for several years now and has been a
great resource for family historians such as myself. Since I knew this census
reasonably well, I knew right where to ask the archivist to look for the entry of
4G-grandfather Peter
Aron Warkentin. This original entry is shown in the photograph. It
was quite a thrill for this family historian to find this original document in the limited
time that I had. (I only wish to have taken more time to set the camera for greater
depth of field.)
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