Florentin Kaster [sic], a blacksmith (Schmied), his wife Anna, and sons (Michael, age 9; Johann, age 4) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 21 July 1766 aboard a koff named Alette under the command of Skipper Wybe Hendricks.
Orphan Michael Kastel (age 11) is recorded on the 1767 census of Keller in Household No. 57 along with the Johann Lemrich family. The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Kastel and Lemrich families.
In 1797, Martin Kastel, believed to be the son of Michael Kastel, moved from Wittmann to Boisroux.
Martin Kastel from Wittmann and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Boisroux in Household No. Bx12.
The death of Martin Kastel in 1830 is recorded on the 1834 census of Boisroux in Household No. 123.
Orphan Johannes Kastel (age 3) is recorded on the 1767 census of Brabander in Household No. 24 along with the Johannes Haas family. The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Kastel and Haas families.
There are no known male descendant lines of this Kastel family that remained in Brabander.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Florentin Kaster [sic] came from the German region of Mainz.
- 1834 Boisroux Census (Household No. 123).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 32.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 450.
- 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): Bx12, Mv3033.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 220.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 354.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3508.
Brent Mai