Wilhelm Köhler, his wife Anna Maria, daughter Katharina (age 20), and son Konrad (age 7) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 September 1766 aboard the snow-brig Die Frau Dietrika under the command of Skipper Joachim Friedrich Luhn.
Wilhelm settled in the Volga German colony of Norka on 2 September 1767. He is recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 210 along with his new wife, Eva Sophia, and their one-week-old son Christoph. An orphan, Konrad Neun, is also recorded in the household. The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Köhler and the Neun families, and it is possible that this Konrad Neun is the same Konrad that is recorded arriving in Oranienbaum as Wilhelm's son.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Wilhelm Köhler was a butcher while the 1767 census records that he was a craftsman (Handwerker).
Son Christoph Köhler and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Norka in Household No. Nr003.
The 1767 census records that Wilhelm Köhler is from the German district of Isenburg. The Norka Origins website records that Wilhelm Köhler was the son of Christoph Köhler and that he came from the village of Wenings.
- 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): Nr003.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 286.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6099.
- Wilhelm and Eva Sophia Köhler (Norka Website)
Brent Mai