Two Götz men settled in the Volga German colony of Messer. They both arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard an English frigate named Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax.
(1) Conrad Götz, son of Johannes Götz, was born on 27 February 1740 in Mittel-Gründau. Conrad Götz and Anna Margaretha Hartwig, the daughter of Michael Hartwig, were married in Hain-Gründau on 13 September 1764.
Konrad and his wife along with Wilhelm and his family arrived in the Volga German colony of Messer on 18 June 1767. Konrad is recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 39 and Wilhelm in Household No. 44.
In 1798, widow Anna Margaretha Götz and her children moved from Messer to Kraft.
(2) Wilhelm Götz, son of Friedrich Götz, and Catharina, widow of Johannes Meininger, were married in Mittel-Gründau on 20 February 1755. Their daughter Anna Dorothea was born 10 January 1755.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that both Konrad & Wilhelm Götz came from the German region of Isenburg.
- Decker, Klaus-Peter. Die Auswanderung von 1766/67 aus der Grafschaft Ysenburg-Büdingen nach Russland: 120.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 29.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 242.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Kf34, Ms76, Mv1760.
- Parish register of Hain-Gründau.
- Parish register of Mittel-Gründau.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 140 & 142.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1727, #1731.
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai