Johann Ernst Gründler, a hunter (Jäger), and his wife Katharina arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard an English barque named George under the command of Skipper Adam Bairnsfair.
Johann Ernst Gründler and his wife Catharina are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Ober-Monjou on 7 June 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 16 along with the orphaned children Johannes [Andreas] Wahl (age 14) and Margaretha Hesslich (age 19). The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Gründler, Wahl, and Hesslich families.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Gründler came from the German region of Laubach. The 1767 census records that he came from the German village of Lauben.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 30.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 200.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 293.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1363.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #1344-1345.
Brent Mai