Bretter*
Heinrich Bretter, son of Johann Heinrich & Anna Maria Bretter, was baptized 27 February 1735 in Wolfenhausen. He married Maria Julianna. The baptisms of two of their sons are recorded in the parish register of Wolfenhausen: (1) Johann Georg, baptized 8 August 1759; and (2) Philipp Heinrich, baptized 11 April 1761.
Heinrich Bretter, a farmer, his wife Maria Julianna, and children (Johann Georg, age 8; Philipp Heinrich, age 6; Philipp Jakob, age 2½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard the ship Die Neue Freiheit von Bremen under the command of Skipper Steingrawer.
Heinrich Bretter, his wife Maria Julianna, and sons (Johann, age 8; Philipp Heinrich, age 6) settled in the Volga German colony of Warenburg on 12 May 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 162.
Widow Margaretha Breder [sic] is recorded on the 1798 censsu of Warenburg in Household No. Wr104.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Heinrich Bretter came from the German region of Runkel. The 1767 census records that he came from the German village of Wolfenhausen in the region of Runkel.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Bretter family among the Volga German colonies.
- 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): Wr104.
- Parish register of Wolfenhausen (LDS Film No. 1195145).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 346.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2015.
Wayne Bonner
Brent Mai