Michael Helmlein, a farmer, his wife Helena, and daughters (Eleonora, age 23; Barbara, age 16¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 16 August 1766 aboard a galliot named Die Wachsamkeit (Vigilance) under the command of Skipper Jacob Heinrich Sager.
Michel Heberlein [sic], his wife Leonora [sic], and daughter (Barbara, age 16) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Michael Helmlein, his wife Helena, and daughter (Barbara, age 18) settled in the Volga German colony of Hölzel on 11 September 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 15.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Michael Helmlein came from the German region of Würzburg. The 1767 census records that Michael Helmlein came from the German village of Freienfels in the Bamberg region.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Helmlein family among the Volga German colonies.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 771-772.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 112.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6175.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #7712-7714.
Brent Mai