There are three Ruhl families that settled in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana. Each of them came from the German village of Nidda, but their relationship to each other, if any, needs further research.
(1) Johann Peter Ruhl, his wife Maria, and children (Simon, age 3; Eva, age ¼) and his family arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 September 1766 aboard the galliot Johannes under the command of Skipper Stahl.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana on 16 September 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 53 along with orphan, Johann Adam Müller (age 16), the son of Johann Müller.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Adam Müller was the servant of Johann Peter Ruhl.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Peter Ruhl was a carpenter from Darmstadt. The 1767 census records that he was a farmer from Nidda.
(2) Johann Conrad Ruhl, a farmer, & Maria Elisabeth Jngmann, both from the area of Darmstadt, were married on 29 July 1766 in Pastor Bruns's house in Lübeck. The marriage is recorded in the parish register of St. Jacob's Lutheran Church in Lübeck.
Johann Konrad Ruhl, a farmer, and his wife Maria Elisabeth arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 13 September 1766 aboard the galliot Die Perle under the command of Skipper Thomson.
Conradt Ruhe [sic] and his wife Elisabeth are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana on 16 September 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 52.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Konrad Ruhl came from the German region of Darmstadt. The 1767 census records that he came from the German region of Nidda.
(3) Johann [Georg] Ruhl, a farmer, his wife Elisabeth, and children (Anna, age 16; Johann [Heinrich], age 6) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 14 September 1766 aboard a ship under the command of Skipper Reders.
Hans Georg Ruhl, his wife Anna, and children (Elisabeth, age 18; Johann Henrich, age 7) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana on 16 September 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 35.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Ruhl came from the German region of Darmstadt while the 1767 census records that he came from the German village of Nidda.
Philipp Ruhl from Yagodnaya Polyana and his family are recorded on the 1857 Neu-Yagodnaya-Polyana.
- 1857 Neu-Yagodnaya-Polyana Census.
- 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): Yp15, Yp24, Yp78, Yp91.
- 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): #271.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 182, 186, 187.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6226, #6366, #6498.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #8210-8211, #8275-8278.
Brent Mai