Gottfried Ritzer, his wife Anna, and sons (Johann, age 17¼; Gottfried, age 14) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard an English barque named George under the command of Skipper Adam Bairnsfair.
Gottfried Ritzer, his wife Anna Amalia, and sons (Joh. Martin, age 17; Gottfriedt [age not recorded]) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that Gottfriedt died en route.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Paulskaya on 7 July 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 32.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Gottfried Ritzer was a farmer while the 1767 census records that he was a brewer (Bierbrauer).
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that Gottfried Ritzer came from the German village of Usingen.
There are no known surviving male lines of this family among the Volga German colonies.
- 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): 211.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 339.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1454.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #0935-0938.
Brent Mai