Friedrich Helwer, a farmer, and his family settled in the Volga German colony of Galka on 1 July 1765. They are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 19.
The 1767 census records that Friedrich Helwer came from the village of Tarttila [in Finland]. A researcher named Albert reports on the forum of wolgadeutsche.net that this Helwer family came originally from Oberderdingen in Baden-Württemberg.
Some translations have erroneously recorded this surname as Helmer or Gelwer.
- 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): Gk37, Gk47.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 24.
Brent Mai