Wilhelm Christoph Bruns [sic], a gardener (Gärtner), and his wife Dorothea Louisa settled in the Volga German colony of Merkel on 28 August 1766. They are recorded on the 1767 census in Household No. 35.
Johann Daniel Bruntz, presumed son of Wilhelm Christoph Bruntz, and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Merkel in Household No. Mr17.
The 1767 census records that Wilhelm Christoph Bruns came from the German village of Liograd near Hamburg.
- 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): Mr17.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 126.
Brent Mai