Johann Heinrich Menges was born 5 January 1700 in Semd and baptized 9 January 1700. He married 27 November 1731 in Semd to Maria/Anna Magdalena Grim. She had been born 12 August 1705. [Earlier reports that this Johann Heinrich Menges was married to Magdalena Sophia Boßers have been determined to be in error.]
The parish register of Groß-Umstadt records the baptisms of the following sons born to Johann Heinrich Menges & Maria/Anna Magdalena Grim of Semd: (1) Johann Heinrich, born 22 November 1732, baptized 25 November 1732; (2) Johann Wilhelm, born 13 June 1735, baptized 16 June 1735, died 21 February 1762, buried 22 February 1762; (3) Johann Leonhard, born 22 May 1738, baptized 25 May 1738; (4) Andreas, born 3 August 1741, baptized 6 August 1741; and (5) Gertraudt, born 30 October 1744, baptized 31 October 1744.
Maria/Anna Magdalena Menges née Grim died 3 May 1747 and was buried 4 May 1747.
Leonhard Menges from Senck [sic] & Anna Regina Mathes [sic], a widow, were married 28 April 1766 in the Lutheran Church of Büdingen.
Leonhard Menges, a farmer, his wife Anna, and [step-]son Georg [Fromm] (age 10¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard a galliot named Kronstadt under the command of Lieutenant Samuel Gibbs.
Leonhard Menges, a farmer, his [new] wife Maria Barbara, and [step?-]sons (Georg Philipp [Metzler], age 15; Georg Nikolaus [Metzler], age 12; Georg Peter [Fromm], age 12) are recorded on the 1767 census of Shcherbakovka in Household No. 42. They had arrived in Shcherbakovka on 18 August 1767. [See Metzler and Fromm Families.]
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Leonhard Menges came from the German region of Darmstadt. The 1767 census records that Leonhard Menges came from Semd.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Menges family among the Volga Germans.
[The Eichhorns record that the Leonhard Mengel family who went first to Denmark is the same as the Leonhard Menges family that settled in Shcherbakovka. However, it has been determined that these are two separate families.]
- Eichhorn, Alexander, Jacob & Mary Eichhorn. The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Drukerei und Verlag Steinmeier GmbH & Co. Kg, 2012): B-1072.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 32.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 375.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): #598.
- Parish register of Groß-Umstadt.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 255.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2849.
Viktor Bleichrot
WaldemarG (wolgadeutsche.net forum)
v.rau (wolgadeutsche.net forum)
Brent Mai
Entry from the parish register of Groß-Umstadt recording the birth of Leonhard Menges on 22 May 1738 in Semd.
Source: v.rau (wolgadeutsche.net forum)
Entry from the Oranienbaum passenger list recording the family of Leonhard Menges along with presumed stepson Georg [Fromm].
Source: Brent Mai.
Entry from the parish register of Groß-Umstadt recording the marriage of Johann Heinrich Menges to Magdalena Sophia Boßers on 12 February 1733 in Semd. [This entry is the wrong Johann Heinrich Menges.]
Source: WaldemarG (wolgadeutsche.net forum)