Michael Breder, son of Sebastian (a farmer) & Maria Breder, was confirmed in 1737 in Darstadt. His sister Dorothea was born there on 7 November 1733.
On 10 June 1760, Michael Breder married Katharina Heilmann, daughter of Simon & Anna Heilmann from Buch. Michael & Katharina had a daughter Maria Margaretha who was born 4 October 1761 in Darstadt. The birth register records that Michael Breder was "in arce villicus" ("superintendant in the castle [of Darstadt]").
There are no other Breder families in the records of Darstadt, so the family must have come from elsewhere before 1733 when Michael's sister was born there. Further research has revealed that the Breder family has ancestral homes in nearby Allersheim, Sulzdorf, Gaubüttelsbrunn, and Ingolstadt/Giebelstadt.
Michael Bretter [sic], a farmer, his wife Katharina, and children (Margaretha, age 6; Philipp, age 2¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 11 June 1766 aboard a snow-brig named Der Jäger (The Hunter) under the command of Skipper Gabriel Will.
Michael Breder (age 39), a farmer, his wife Katharina (age 37), and daughter Maria Margaretha (age 7) are recorded on the 1767 census of Seelmann in Household No. 45. They had arrived in Seelmann on 24 August 1767.
Michael Breder, presumed son of Michael Breder, and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Seelmann in Household No. Sm05.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Michael Bretter [sic] came from the German region of Würzburg. The 1767 census records that Michael Breder came from the German village of Darstadt in the Würzburg region.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 30.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 294.
- 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): Sm05.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 158.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2151.
Jochen Podelo
Brent Mai