Bies / Piess*
Peter Bies, a cobbler (Schuhmacher), his wife Gertrude, son Simon (age ½), and sister-in-law Susanna [surname not recorded] (age 23) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 September 1766 aboard the galliot Adler under the command of Skipper Paul Adam Drath.
Peter Piess [sic], his wife Gertrudt, son Simon (age 3), and daughter [sister-in-law on Oranienbaum passenger list] Susanna (age 23) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that Simon died en route.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Seelmann on 5 September 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 70.
The 1767 census records that Peter Bies came from the German village of Merzig in the Trier region.
There are no known surviving male lines of this family among the Volga German colonies.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 162.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5983.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #7482-7485.
Brent Mai