Heinrich Messer, a farmer, his wife Anna Margaretha, and children (Katharina, age 18; Anna Katharina, age 12; Wilhelmina, age 8; Johann, age 5) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 September 1766 aboard the pink Slon under the command of Lieutenant Sergey Panov.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Norka on 15 August 1767.
Heinrich Messer, a farmer, his wife Anna Margaretha, and children (Katharina, age 19; Anna Katharina, age 13; Wilhelmina, age 9; Johannes, age 7) are recorded on the 1767 census of Norka in Household No. 52.
[Anna] Katharina Messer is recorded on the 1798 census of Norka in Household No. Nr058 as the wife of Heinrich Klehr.
Wilhelmina Messer is recorded on the 1798 census of Norka in Household No. Nr048 as the wife of Philipp Gerlach.
Johannes Messer is recorded on the 1798 census of Norka in Household No. Nr029.
Johannes Messer is recorded on the 1811 census of Norka in Household No. 29.
The death of Johannes Messer in 1832 is recorded on the 1834 census of Norka in Household No. 445.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that Heinrich Messer came from the German district of Isenburg.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Messer family among the Volga German colonies.
- 1811 Norka Census (Household No. 29).
- 1834 Norka Census (Household No. 445).
- 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): Nr029, Nr048, Nr058.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 242.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #4025.
Brent Mai