On-line Prussian, Ukrainian, Russian Mennonite Records

West Prussian Property Records from Polish Archives

1890- 1945 Elbing Mennonite Church (recent photo)

The West Prussian Property Records are housed at Bethel College in Kansas. Please respect their rules & guidance when using the records.

To quote from the Bethel College site:

Why you might not be able to find someone in a property record for a specific village:

Your ancestor was not a property owner. Note that by 1783 a large percentage of the Mennonite families in West Prussia were landless. This was one of the reasons for emigration to Russia. There are lists of Mennonite landowners for 1789 and 1824 (for Marienwerder region), as well as a list of those who acquired land between 1789 and 1798 and those in the Marienwerder region who disposed of land between 1803 and 1856.

You have confused two villages with the same name. Some examples are Rosenort (one in the Gross Werder area and one in the Klein Werder area) and Neuenhuben (one in the Danzig region and one in the Schwetz region).

You have confused two villages with similar names. For example, Montau in the Schwetz region and Klein Muntau in the Marienburg region. Another example is Muensterberg and Alt Muensterberg. Consult this village list.

The particular property record which might mention that person has been lost. Many of the early records have been lost for one reason or another over the last century. Most of these seem to have disappeared at the end of World War 2.