Over the years, the promises made by Catherine the Great began to erode. A significant blow was the Universal Conscription Act of 1874, which mandated military service by all Russians, including the Volga Germans.
In the spring of 1874, representatives from the Wiesenseite colonies met in Herzog to discuss the possibility of emigration and five delegates were elected to investigate possible sites for relocation:
An large group of Volga Germans arrived in Topeka on 28 November 1875. They were from the colonies of Herzog, Katharinenstadt, Liebental, Beauregard, Ober-Monjou, Neu-Obermonjou, Mariental, Louis, Marienberg, and Graf. Within a few months, hundreds of Volga German families arrived in Kansas, and today there are Volga German descendants in most towns and cities across the state.
A group of about 50 families from Beideck and Schilling arrived in New York City in 1887. They had been in route to Kansas, but settled across the Hudson River in Newark, New Jersey.
Within a few years of founding the German colonies along the Volga, the colonists began moving to other locations in Russia. In the documents of the 1798 Census, there are many references to colonists being or having been in other areas, primarily the Caucasus. The colonists also moved into neighboring Russian villages, towns, and cities.
As new lands opened up in Siberia at the end of the Nineteenth Century, many Volga German families moved there in search of additional farmland.
Johannes Georg Schremser, son of Johann Anton Schrem(b)ser & Anna Würz, was born in Schriesheim on 25 February 1732. His father died 29 December 1734. His mother remarried to Daniel Bossert. She died 21 January 1766.
Jürgen [later Georg] Schremser immigrated to Schleswig-Holstein (today in Denmark) where on 17 April 1760 in Altona he married Anna Christina Stay, daughter of Nicolaus & Catharina Stay of Heimersheim.
The birth of daughter Anna Catharina on 27 March 1761 is recorded in the parish register of Karup, Denmark.
Johann Peter Kreick, son of Johann Melchior Kreick of Schlierbach, married on 24 July 1752 in nearby Hellstein to Elisabeth Schäfer, daughter of Johann Conrad & Elisabeth Schäfer. Elisabeth Schäfer had been baptized in Hellstein on 7 July 1726.
Johann Peter & Elisabeth Kreick had 4 children who's baptism are recorded in the Hellstein parish records: (1) Johann Georg, born 19 November 1752; (2) Johann Jacob, born 17 February 1754; (3) Anna Magdalena, born 25 December 1755; and (4) Charlotta Friderica, born 18 October 1756.
Christian Weldi married Maria Elisabetha Hummel. Birth records for their children have been located in the parish records of Rheinbischofsheim which include people living in Holzhausen: (1) Maria Elisabetha, born in Rheinbischofsheim, baptized 31 December 1745; (2) Johann Michael Weldi, born 13 January 1756 in Holzhausen, baptized 14 January 1756; (3) Sophia Dorothea, born 10 May 1759 in Holzhausen, baptized 12 May 1759; and (4) Johann Georg, born 30 December 1765 in Holzhausen, baptized 31 December 1765.