Johann Herel [sic] and his wife Margaretha arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 21 September 1766.
Johann Herel [sic], his wife Margaretha, and newborn daughter Dorothea are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Johann Georg Herel [sic], a farmer, and his wife Kunigunde settled in the Volga German colony of Beauregard on 3 August 1767 and are recorded on the appendix to the 1767 census of Beauregard in Household No. 44 along with a note that they relocated to the colony of Wittmann.
The widow [Walpurga née Wittmann] and children of Georg Herl are recorded on the 1798 census of Wittmann in Household No. Wm24.
The 1767 census records that Johann Georg Herel came from the German village of Schönwald. This Schönwald is believed to be the one in Schwarzwald (the Black Forest) because many Volga German families came from this area.
- 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): Wm24.
- Oranienbaum passenger list #6721 [not included on the Kuhlberg List published by Igor Plehve].
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 204.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #4630-4632.
Brent Mai