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My Esau descendants lived in Schoenhorst, Chortitza Colony, in present day Ukraine. The earliest that I can trace the family is to Peter Esau (June 11, 1794 - June 13, 1874). His wife was Elisabeth Penner (January 11, 1801 - April 28, 1869). Church records indicate that Peter's parents were Peter Esau and Helena Neufeld. I believe that Helena Neufeld was the daughter of Salomon Neufeld (ca. 1747 - 1800) and Helena Wieler (b. 1751). In the 1795 census for Chortitza Colony, Salomon Neufeld is listed with a daughter Helena (b. ca. 1772) and a son Peter (b. 1794). It is possible that Salomon and his wife Helena had a son born when Helena was 44 years old, but there is no other record of a Peter Neufeld (b. 1794) in any other documents.
My belief is that Helena Neufeld (b. ca. 1772) is the mother of Peter, and that the father, a Peter Esau, was her husband who had died before the family migrated from Prussia to Russia. It is of course possible that Peter Esau (b. 1794) was illegitimate, and that the father, Peter Esau, stayed in Prussia. I have several reasons as to why I believe Helena Neufeld (b. ca. 1772) was Peter Esau's mother.
First, there is no record of any Esaus moving to Chortitza Colony in the early decades of settlement. However, I know that Peter Esau married in Chortitza in 1818, so he must have immigrated to Chortitza colony before 1818. If he did immigrate, then he must have migrated with another family with a different surname. Since I know that his mother was a Helena Neufeld, it is possible that he migrated with a Neufeld family, possibly her parents. The Helena Neufeld listed under Salomon Neufeld would be of the right age to be Peter Esau's mother, and the fact that a Peter (b. 1794) is listed means that it is possible that he was her son.
Second, Peter Esau (b. 1794) had a son named Salomon Esau. Since Mennonites nearly always named their children after parents and grandparents or after other family members, it is likely that Salomon Esau was named after a parent or grandparent. Salomon is an extremely rare firstname among Mennonites in
Chortitza, so families with this name are easy to find and isolate. Salomon Neufeld (b. ca. 1747) is a likely candidate to be an ancestor of this Salomon Esau, since Salomon's father, Peter Esau, was the son of a Helena Neufeld, and Salomon Neufeld (b.ca. 1747) had a daughter named Helena who could easily have been Peter Esau's mother.
So, for those two reasons I believe that Peter Esau (b. 1794) was the son of Helena Neufeld, who was the daughter of Salmon Neufeld.
Now, after that major preamble, my question is, who was Peter Esau, the father of Peter Esau (b. 1794)? He either died before 1795, when the 1795 census was taken in Chortitza, or he was not married to Helena Neufeld and stayed in Prussia. The Peter Esau in question was probably born around 1770, and since Salomon Neufeld (b.ca. 1747) was from Ellerwald 3 according to several Prussian census lists, the Peter Esau in question was probably from the Elbing-Ellerwald area.
Any responses would be appreciated.
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