Pierre Girard, son of Jean Pierre Girard & Marie Madeleine Mathieu, married in Ludweiler on 7 June 1740 to Maria Magdalena Weiter, daughter of Ulrich Weiter & Salome Regnitz.
The parish registers of Ludweiler and nearby Saarbrücken record the baptisms of 12 children to Pierre Girard & Maria Magdalena Weiter: (1) Susanne Elisabeth, baptized 9 April 1741 in Ludweiler; (2) Pierre, baptized 11 September 1742 in Ludweiler; (3) Jean Henry, baptized 30 December 1745 in Ludweiler; (4) Anna Suzanne, baptized 30 September 1748 in Saarbrücken; (5) Maria Magdalena [baptism not found] confirmed in 1763; (6) an unnamed child, baptized 25 November 1750 in Ludweiler; (7) Johann Daniel, baptized 24 October 1751 in Saarbrücken; (8) Johann Jacob, baptized 19 December 1755 in Ludweiler; (9) Johann Christian, baptized 26 November 1756 in Saarbrücken; (10) Phillip, baptized 3 January 1758 in Ludweiler; (11) Johannes, baptized 17 April 1760 in Ludweiler; and (12) Anna Catharina, baptized 10 May 1762 in Saarbrücken.
The marriage of son Pierre Girard and Anna Regina Rau is recorded on 16 May 1766 in the Reformed Church in Lübeck.
Pierre Girard, a farmer, his wife Maria, and children (Johann, age 16¼; Jakob, age 10¼; Maria, age 8; Ulrich, age 6; Anna, age 4) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard a ship named Die Perle under the command of Skipper Gerhardt Hermann Thomsen along with son Pierre Girard and his new wife Anna.
Peter Schierat [sic], a farmer, his wife Maria Magdalena, and children (Maria Magdalena, age 18; Johann Daniel, age 16; Johann Jakob, age 12; Johannes, age 7; Katharina, age 5) are recorded on the 1767 census of Moor in Household No. 19 along with a note that they relocated to the Volga German colony of Dreispitz in 1768. They had arrived in Moor on 15 April 1767.
Son Peter Schierat [sic] and his wife Anna Katharina are recorded on the 1767 census of Moor in Household No. 20 along with a note that they, too, relocated to the Volga German colony of Dreispitz in 1768.
In 1797, Daniel Schira and his family moved from Dreispitz to Holstein.
He is recorded there on the 1798 census in Household No. Ho09.
Jakob Schira and his nephew (widower Adam Schira) are recorded on the 1798 census of Dreispitz in Household No. Dr43.
The death of Johann Georg Schirah in 1837 is recorded on the 1835-1846 Communion Register of Dobrinka in Household No. 50.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that the Gerard families came from the German region of Nassau. The 1767 census records that Peter Schierat [sic] came from the German village of Saarbrücken in the Nassau region.
- 1834 Dreispitz Census (Household No. 25).
- 1835-1846 Dobrinka Communion Register (Household No. 50).
- "Die Lübecker Traulisten," Der Wanderweg der Russlandduetshcen (1939): 114-115.
- 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): 156.
- 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): Dr43, Ho09, Mv0533.
- 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): #1183.
- Parish register of Ludweiler.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 160, 161.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #983, #984.
Brent Mai
Wayne Bonner
Maggie Hein