The series contains original affidavits of registration that record personal information about each registrant, their photograph affixed to the majority of documents, and the registrants fingerprints. All of these are specific to Kansas, and most have the actual documents attached.
This book is an index of Mennonite estates in Imperial Russia – the time period from 1813 to about 1920. It does not explain all the intricacies of the development of each of the estates; it does not decry or defend them. By this time it is a study of something which has disappeared almost a century ago. Some have decrepit buildings remaining, but of many estates there is now nothing left except open fields. Despite these circumstances it is hoped that this index can help people in the study of something which seems to be increasingly significant to many – a search for their roots.
For the past thirty-four years the community of Tecumseh had profited by the business activities and progressive citizenship of the Bergmann family. It was late in the year 1882 that Wilhelm Henry Bergmann came here and purchased a property, and subsequently he became one of the locality’s substantial men and continued so during the remainder of a long and useful life. The reputation for solidity and integrity which he made is being perpetuated by his son, Curt Bergmann, present postmaster of Tecumseh and proprietor of one of the city’s leading mercantile establishments. The late Wilhelm Henry Bergmann was born in … Read more