Wolfgang Klein [sic], a farmer, his wife Kunigunda, and children (Margaretha, age 7; Johann, age 3) 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.
Wolffgang Gleich, his wife Cunigunda, and daughter Margaretha (age 7) are recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Wolfgang Klein [sic], a farmer, and his wife Kunigunde settled in the Volga German colony of Lauwe on 5 September 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 22.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Wolfgang Klein [sic] came from the German region of Ansbach. The 1767 census records that Wolfgang Klein [sic] came from the German village of Fürth in the region of Ansbach.
There do not appear to be any surviving male descendants of this Gleich family among the Volga German colonies.
[Some publications record this surname as Blehm.]
- 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): 772.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 42.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6184.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #7236-7238.
Brent Mai