Census of Petrovka: 14 July 1897

State Archive of the Odessa Region, Odessa, Ukraine
Fond (Fund) 89, Opis (Inventory) 1, Delo (File) 3257

Translated by Nikolai Mazharenko
June 2001

Edited by Tim Janzen with assistance from Rick Rye
HTML by Richard D. Thiessen

Petrovka was in the Naumenko Colony. This colony was located in the Kharkov Province about 60 km northwest of the Borissovo Colony. The Naumenko Colony was founded in 1889 as a daughter colony of both the Molotschna and Chortitza Colonies. The colony is shown on a map in the Mennonite Encyclopedia, V. 4, p. 382. The people listed in the Petrovka Census were all originally from either the Chortitza Colony or the Yazykovo Colony.

The file containing this document was microfilmed in 1991 under the direction of Professor Harvey Dyck. The following archives hold copies of the microfilms of this material: the Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba; the Mennonite Historical Society of British Columbia, Clearbrook, B. C.; the Robarts Library and the Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario; the Mennonite Archives of Ontario, Waterloo, Ontario; and the Mennonitische Forschungstelle, Weierhof, Germany.

The initial translation of the census data was done by Nikolai Mazharenko in June, 2001. I have edited his translation to provide better clarity and have corrected some errors he made in his translation. In addition, I have standardized the spellings of both the given names and surnames of the people listed in the census. Rick Rye has assisted me in translating specific words that were difficult to read. Richard Thiessen has added a column in which he has entered the Grandma numbers for the heads of families who appear in the Grandma 3 database.

A total of 96 people are listed in the census for Petrovka although the numbered list in the original document incorrectly states that there were 98 people listed. It appears that the name of Johann Siemens who had 135 dessiatines of land was added to household #14 after the census was originally taken as the handwriting and ink in which his name is recorded are different from that in which the rest of the census document was written.

If you have any questions about any of this data feel free to contact Richard Thiessen or me.

If you wish to print this document, it is recommended that you download the pdf version: saorf89i1f3257petrovs.pdf.

Tim Janzen
12367 SE Ridgecrest Rd.
Portland, OR 97236
E-mail:

A census of the people living in the village of Petrovka (Naumenko Colony) in the Prelestensk Volost, Isomsk Region, Kharkov Province, South Russia, compiled 14 July 1897.

Created 24 January 2002

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