The baptisms of the following children born to Wilhelm Colas & Maria Catharina Fritsch of Wernborn are recorded in the parish register of St. Michael Catholic Church in Wehrheim: (1) Peter, baptized 19 April 1752; (2) Elisabeth, baptized 7 April 1756; and (3) Maria Catharina, born 16 April 1759, baptized 17 April 1759.
Wilhelm Colas, a miller, left the town of Wehrheim in June 1766 with his wife and three children. They arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 20 August 1766 aboard a ship named Der Friede (Peace) under the command of Skipper Hans Karck.
Wilhelm Kollas, his wife Elisabeth, and children (Peter, age 16¼; Elisabeth, age 11; Maria, age 7½) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that father Wilhelm died en route.
Widow Katharina Kollas née Fritz, is recorded on the 1798 census of Ober-Monjou in Household No. Om15 along with her daughter Katharina and son-in-law Johann Peter Bös and their family. Daughter Elisabeth is recorded in Household No. Om16 along with her husband Anton Rupp.
Son Peter Kollas is recorded in Household No. Om71, but a note indicates that he is actually living in the colony of Louis. The death of Peter Kollas on 16 June 1812 in Ober-Monjou is recorded in the parish register of Katharinenstadt.
There are no known surviving male lines of this family among the Volga German colonies.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 868.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Om71.
- Mai, Brent Alan, trans. & ed. Transport of the Volga Germans from Oranienbaum to the Colonies on the Volga: 1766-1767 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1998): entries 2658-2661.
- Parish register of Katharinentadt.
- Parish register of St. Michael Catholic Church in Wehrheim.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 430.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #4530-4534.
- Struck, Wolf-Heino. "Die Rußlandauswanderung von 1766 aus den gemeinschaftlich kurtrierischen und nassau-oranischen Ämtern Camberg und Wehrheim." Nassauische Annalen 89 (1978): 255.
Brent Mai
Bill Pickelhaupt
Lorenzo Barbas Abtt
Entry from the parish register recording the baptism of Elisabeth Colas on 7 April 1756.
Source: Lorenzo Barbas Abtt.