Two Lerch families are associated with the colony of Paulskaya. They arrived together in Oranienbaum. Their relationship to each other, if any, needs further research.
(1) Johannes Lerg [sic], his wife Anna, and children (Andreas, age 16; Anna, age 8; Anna [again], age 6; Heinrich, age 4; Charlotta, age ½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 26 August 1766 aboard a snow-brig named Die Jäger (The Hunter) under the command of Skipper Gabriel Will.
Johannes Lerch, his wife Anna Maria, and children (Andreas, age 16; Catharina, age 8; Maria, age 6; Heinrich, age 4; Charlotta, age ½) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Johann[es] Lerch, a widower farmer, and his children (Andreas, age 16; Katharina, age 9; Maria, age 7; Heinrich, age 4) are recorded on the 1767 census of Paulskaya in Household No. 2. They had settled there on 23 July 1767.
Johann Heinrich Lerch, son of Johannes Lerch, from Paulskaya and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Kaneau in Household No. Kn17.
The 1767 census records that Johann Lerch came from the German village of Leusel.
(2) Jeremias Lerch arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 26 August 1766 aboard a snow-brig named Die Jäger (The Hunter) under the command of Skipper Gabriel Will.
Jeremias Belerg [sic], a farmer, and his wife Elisabeth settled in the Volga German colony of Paulskaya on 23 July 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 6.
The widow and children of Jeremiah Lerch are recorded on the 1798 census of Paulskaya in Household No. Pl37.
The 1767 census records that Jeremias Belerg [sic] came from the German village of Romrod.
Andreas Jakob Lerch and his family are recorded on an 1865 list of colonists resettled to Lilienfeld along with a note that they had arrived in Lilienfeld from Kaneau on 7 March 1859.
[Some translations have erroneously recorded this surname as Lehr or Lohr.]
- 1865 Lilienfeld List.
- 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): 859, 860.
- 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): Kn17, Pl37.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 331, 332.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766 (Saratov: State Technical University, 2010): #6974, #6982.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #8704-8710.
Brent Mai