There are two Matthias families that arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard a ship named Die Zwei Gebrüder (The Two Brothers) under the command of Skipper Nicolaus Peter Pinck. They traveled together from St. Petersburg to Saratov and settled in the Volga German colony of Ober-Monjou on 3 August 1767. Their relationship to each other, if any, needs further research.
(1) Valentin Matheis [sic] married 12 February 1764 in Ockstadt to Catharina Fegbeutel, daughter of Heinrich Fegbeutel & Margaretha Göthner.
Valentin Matthias, a weaver (Weber), and his wife Katharina arrived in Oranienbaum.
Valentin Matheis [sic] and his wife Catharina are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They are recorded on the 1767 census of Ober-Monjou in Household No. 72.
(2) [Johann] Ernst Matthias, a farmer, and his wife Katharina arrived in Oranienbaum.
Ernst Matheis [sic] and his wife Catharina are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They are recorded on the 1767 census of Ober-Monjou in Household No. 75 along with a note that they relocated to the colony of Beauregard in 1768.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that both Matthias families came from the German region of Franken (Franconia). The 1767 census records that Valentin Matthias came from the German village of Wiesthal in Franken (Franconia) and that Johann Ernst Matthias came from the German village of Ockstadt.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 31.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 543.
- Parish register of Ockstadt (LDS Film No. 0948097).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 305, 306.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #4210, #4211.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #5753-5756.
Brent Mai