The parish register of Mettenheim records 3 Reichel families departing for Russia.
(1) Johann Jacob Reichel, born 1729 in Mettenheim, master tailor (Schneidermeister), moved with his entire family to Astracan [the region in which the Volga German colonies were located at the time] in 1766.
His wife is Maria Margaretha, daughter of Johann Georg Rühl, was born 1734 in Mettenheim. Their children are: (a) Johannes, born 1756; (b) Johann Jacob, born 1758; (c) Eva Maria, born 1762, died after the departure of her parents while en route in Hamburg in 1766; (d) Maria Elisabeth, born 1765.
Jakob Reichel, a tailor, his wife Maria, and children (Johannes, age 10; Jakob, age 8; Eva, age 3½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 13 September 1766 aboard a ship under the command of Skipper Johann Grapp.
Jacob Reichel, his wife Maria, and children (Johannes, age 11; Jacob, age 10; Eva, age 3) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that the parents died en route.
Son Jacob, an orphan (age 11), settled in the Volga German colony of Bauer on 20 July 1766. He is recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 16 along with the Christian Lissau family. The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Reichel and Lissau families. The 1767 census records that Jakob Reichel came from the German village of Meisenheim [sic] in the Kurpfalz region.
(2) Michael Reichel, went to Astracan [the region in which the Volga German colonies were located at the time] in 1765. His wife is from Dorn-Dürkheim. He has a daughter and a son.
Michael Reichel (age 34), a farmer, his wife Charlotta Kayser (age 28), children (Henrietta, age 9; Johann Jacob, age 5), and nephew Johann Christoph Fischer (age 17) are recorded on a list of colonists dated 23 September 1765 who were gathering in the town of Worms. They had arrived in Worms on 20 September 1765.
Michael Reichel, a farmer, his wife Rosina, and children (Hanetta, age 11; Jakob, age 8; Anton, age ½) settled in the Volga German colony of Bauer on 1 March 1767. They are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 50 along with Christoph Fischer (age 20), a single farmer. The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Reichel and Fischer families.
In 1789, Johann Reichel moved from Bauer to Grimm.
The 1765 Worms list records that Michael Reichel came from the German village of Mettenheim. The 1767 census records that the Reichel family came from the German village of Meißenheim [sic] in Württemberg.
(3) Johann Georg Reichel, son of Johann Christoph Reichel by his second wife, born in 1743, went to Astracan [the region in which the Volga German colonies were located at the time] on 12 March 1766.
Georg Reichel, a farmer, and his wife Anna arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 13 September 1766 aboard a ship under the command of Skipper Johann Grapp.
Georg Reichel and his wife Anna Catharina are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
He is recorded on the 1798 census of Dietel in Household No. Dt81.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Einige Kapitel aus der Geschichte des Kolonisationsprojects von Katharina II, 1763-1775 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2021): 127-128 (#362-366).
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Br22, Br68, Dt81, Dt82, Dt83, Gm137, Mv0144.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 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): #6314-6320.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): 1244-1246.
- Parish register of Mettenheim (LDS Film No. 1442055).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis; 1999): 119, 128, 296.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5865, #5894.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #6288-6294.
Brent Mai