Michael Kratzenberger was baptized on 1 March 1712 in Züntersbach. He married Catharina [surname unknown].
The baptism of 2 daughters born to Michael & Catharina Kratzenberger are recorded in the parish register of Züntersbach: (1) Anna Catharina, baptized 8 July 1742; and (2) Anna Maria, baptized 12 May 1746.
Catharina died on 16 March 1750, and Michael Kratzenberger remarried to Margaretha Eüler in December 1750. Michael died in Züntersbach on 7 February 1763.
(1) Anna Catharina married Nicolaus Külthau, son of Johann Heinrich Kühlthau & Anna Margaretha Meinhard. He had been born in neighboring Weichersbach and baptized on 18 December 1739.
Nikolaus Kühlthau, a weaver (Weber), and his wife Katharina arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard a pinque named Slon (Elephant) under the command of Lieutenant Sergey Panov.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Norka on 15 August 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 141.
(2) Anna Maria arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard a pinque named Slon (Elephant) under the command of Lieutenant Sergey Panov with her sister and brother-in-law .
She married Johannes Huck. They also settled in the Volga German colony of Norka on 15 August 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 131.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Kratzenberger family among the Volga German colonies.
- 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): 521.
- 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): Nr207, Nr208.
- Parish register of Mottgers (including Züntersbach).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 263, 267.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #4096, #4097.
Steve Schreiber
Brent Mai