Johann Mensdorf [sic], a housekeeper [Ökonom], his wife Gertruda, daughter (Katharina Elisabeth, age ¼), mother-in-law (Katharina, age not recorded), and sister-in-law (Losina, age 21) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 13 September 1766 aboard the pink Slon [English: Elephant] under the command of Lieutenant Sergey Panov.
Johannes Mentzdorf, his wife Gertraud, and daughter Cathar. Elisabeth (age 1) are recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that father and daughter died en route.
It is not known in which colony the widow Gertraud settled.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johannes Mensdorf [sic] came from the German region of Hessen.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Mentzdorf family among the Volga German colonies.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 35.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 892.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #7299.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #7846-7848.
Brent Mai