Two Wirth families arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 16 August 1766 aboard a snow-brig named Prinz Carl (Prince Carl) under the command of Skipper Christopher Losser. Their relationship to each other, if any, requires additional research.
(1) Sibelius Wirth [sic], his wife Katharina, son Lorenz (age 4), and [step-]daughter Barbara [Zeiser], (age 15¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 16 August 1766 aboard a snow-brig named Prinz Carl (Prince Carl) under the command of Skipper Christopher Losser.
Siberius Würtz, his wife Catharina, son Lorenz (age 4), and [step-]daughter Barbara [Zeiser], (age 15½) are recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that Lorentz died in route. The same
Ziborius Würtz, a farmer, and his wife Katharina are recorded on an appendix to the 1767 census of Beauregard in Household No. 37 along with stepdaughter Barbara Zeiser (age 15).
It is not known in which colony they settled.
The 1767 census records that Ziborius Würtz came from the German village of Semmerdinger [?].
(2) Katharina Wirth arrived in Oranienbaum.
Catharina Würtz is recorded immediately following the Siberius Würtz family on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
It is not known in which colony she settled.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Würtz family among the Volga German colonies.
- 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): 837.
- Oranienbaum passenger list #6736, #6737 [not included on the Kuhlberg List published by Igor Plehve].
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 203.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #4664-4668.
Brent Mai