There are two Müller families that settled in the Volga German colony of Nieder-Monjou who are believed to be related:
(1) Johann [Martin] Müller, a farmer, his wife Anna, and children (Katharina, age 10¼; Johann, age 4) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard a galliot named Frau Catharina under the command of Skipper Johann Joachim Jenßen.
Johann Martin Müller, his wife Anna Margretha, and children (Catrina, age 10¾; Johannes, age 4½; Maria Elisabetha, born en route) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that wife Anna Margaretha and daughter Maria Elisabetha died en route.
Johann Martin Müller, his [new] wife Katharina, son Johannes (age 5), and step-daughter Katharina [surname not recorded] (age 12) are recorded on the 1767 census of Nieder-Monjou in Household No. 12. They had settled in Nieder-Monjou on 7 June 1767.
(2) Johannes Müller, a single farmer, arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard a ship named Die Zwei Gebrüder (The Two Brothers) under the command of Skipper Nicolaus Peter Pinck.
Johann Müller is recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Johannes Müller, his wife Margaetha, and [step-?]daughter Elisabeth (age 2) settled in Nieder-Monjou on 3 August 1767. They are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 69.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that these Müller families came from the German region of Hanau. The 1767 census records that both of these Müller families came from the German village of Breitenbach.
According to a document in the Hessian State Archive in Marburg, Johann Martin Möller from Breitenbach and Johannes Rüb from Niederzell requested to move to Russia in 1766. The request was rejected by the government in Hanau, but the families left secretly anyway during the night of 9-10 April 1766.
- Hessen State Archive in Marburg - Protokoll der Regierung Hanau aus dem Jahr 1766 (Signatur: Best. Protokolle II Hanau A 2 c Bd. 99a, Bl. 236), p. 339.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 31, 32.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 504, 547.
- 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): Nm11, Nm23.
- Müller-Marschhausen, Ernst. “Russland-Auswanderer aus dem Bergwinkel um 1766 und die Spurensuche nach ihrer Rückkehr im 20. Jahrhundert.” [Online]
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 187, 200.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3958, #4254.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #5964, #6186-6190.
Brent Mai