Pikovsky! New information on the Bekofske Russian Forefathers

I found a message board for Volhynian genealogical research and left a message yesterday. Today I got a response!

I was given information about Christoph, my husband's great-grandfather. A marriage banns record has been found!

Christoph Pikovsky, age 21 and son of the late John Pikorsky and his wife Marianne who was a native of Czarnikau, Prussia, born in Stanislawka, Schulz, Lutsk County, was to marry Carolina, 19 years, daughter of the late Ferdinand Reinke and his wife Catherine nee' Bytow in Stanislawka, Lutsk Co, and from Stanislawka, Lutsk district.  The parish was Roschischtsche, and although the records are from the Protestant church they were Roman Catholic. Catherine's parents were called 'colonists'. The banns were issued in 1884.

In 1860 many Germans left Poland after a revolution. They could only lease farm land there, and in 1861 the Russian serfs were freed and the nobles needed someone to farm the land and thereby gain them an income. The nobles were glad to have the German farmers buy their land.

This explains the confusion over the Bekofske lineage. Gary's dad called himself Prussian. On the U.S. Census, Gust and Herman variously gave their parents place of birth and home language as German or Polish or Prussian. Chrisoph's father was from Poland, which was at that time Prussia. Carolina was of Polish or German roots who had settled in Volhynia earlier.

Just to continue the Russian theme, I started a book I had been wanting to reread for some time. I have read it three or four times since I read it in World Literature in 12 grade at Royal Oak Kimball High School-- The Brothers Karamazov.