[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Gustav Peter from Zhitomir

[Jim & Muriel Gambrel]

Hello all!

I am researching Gustav Peter, born Dec 17 1903 in Volhynia.

His baptism certificate, Lutheran church, gives his place of birth as
(?) Olovornitz or Selovornitz(?)
The writing is very hard to make out.  He was not baptized until 1907.

Gustav's mother died shortly after he was born.  His father married
again.  Then his father
died, and Gustav's stepmother did not want the father's children.
Gustav couldn't remember
very much, but he knew he had an older sister, perhaps named Amelia,
and an older brother
named Samuel.

The children were split up, each to a different family, and never
heard from each other again.
Gustav was given to a family named Balkow.  He was not treated very
well, and as soon as he was able,
left them and went out on his own.  The Balkow family left Volhynia
about 1912, and Gustav was
confirmed in Borchersdorf, East Prussia.  About 1921 he received
German Citizenship in Culm.
In 1929 he married Olga Lerch, and in 1930 he and his wife and infant
daughter came to Manitoba, Canada.
He worked as a laborer in East Prussia, and farmed for a while after
coming to Canada.

Sadly, he could not remember his parents given names. And neither his
baptism nor confirmation
certificate show his parents names.  From checking the St. Petersburg
records, there were several
men with the surname PETER who married in c 1883.  One was named
Samuel, another August.
Either one could have been Gustav's father.  But I cannot find more
data on them, such as , did one
of them die c 1904? And who was he married to?  And how many children
were there, and what
were their names??

Any information or suggestions would be most welcome.  Thank you

Muriel Gambrel