Five Krotter families settled in the Volga German colonies of Preuss and Dehler in 1767. They appear to be interrelated, although their relationships to each other, if any, requires further research:
(1) Peter Gröder [sic], a farmer, his wife Maria, and children (Maria, age 16; Antonetta [sic], age 14; Peter, age 12; Joseph, age 10¼; Herrmann, age 8) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 21 July 1766 aboard a koff named Alette under the command of Skipper Wybe Hendricks.
Peter Krotter, a cobbler (Schuhmacher), his wife Christina, and children (Maria Margaretha, age 18; Johannetta, age 16; Peter Anton, age 14; Joseph, age 12; Amon [Herrmann], age 9) are recorded on the 1767 census of Dehler in Household No. 25. They had settled there on 26 July 1767.
Antonius Krotter and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Dehler in Household No. Dl04.
Joseph Krotter and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Dehler in Household No. Dl34.
Margaretha Graf née Krotter and her family are recorded on the 1798 census of Dehler in Household No. Dl40.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Peter Gröder [sic] came from the German region of Brabant while the 1767 census records that he came from the village of Kotikam Perschle in Flanders, a Dutch-speaking region in northern Belgium.
(2) Peter Krotter, a farmer, his wife Anna [Christina], and children (Christian, age 11; Johann [Christoph], age 9; Elisabeth, age 1¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard the ship Die Jungfer Friederika (The Maiden Friederika) under the command of Skipper Hans Christian Korsholm.
Peter died after arriving in Russia. Widow Anna Kryter [sic] is recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Widow Anna remarried to Johann Dietrich Engelbert. She and his two surviving children (Christian, age 11; Christoph, age 10) are recorded on the 1767 census of Preuss in Household No. 61.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Peter Krotter came from the German region of Kölln. The 1767 census records that sons Christian & Christoph came from the German region of Braband.
(3) Anton Gröder [sic], a farmer, and his wife Maria arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard the ship Die Jungfer Friederika (The Maiden Friederika) under the command of Skipper Hans Christian Korsholm.
Anton Gröder [sic], his wife Maria Agnesia, and son Anton (age ¼) are recorded on the 1767 census of Preuss in Household No. 31. They had settled there on 12 May 1767.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Anton Gröder [sic] came from the German region of Kölln.
(4) Friedrich Gröder [sic] (age 20) and his widowed mother Anna arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard the ship Die Jungfer Friederika (The Maiden Friederika) under the command of Skipper Hans Christian Korsholm.
Friedrich Gröder [sic], a farmer, and his wife Anna Margaretha are recorded on the 1767 census of Preuss in Household No. 43. They had settled there on 12 May 1767.
The 1767 census records that Friedrich Gröder [sic] came from the German village of Afeln [?].
(5) Johann Götter [sic], a weaver, his wife Anna Maria, and daughters (Susanna, age 17; Anna Maria, age 3½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 31 May 1766 aboard a galliot named Die Vergoldete Weintraube (The Gilded Grape) under the command of Skipper Joachim Hermann Andersen.
Johannes Götter [sic], a farmer, his wife Maria Elisabeth, and stepdaughters (Magdalena, age 14; Margaretha, age 14) [surname not recorded] are recorded on the 1767 census of Preuss in Household No. 46. They had settled there on 12 May 1767.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Götter came from the German village of Külsheim. The 1767 census records that Johannes Götter [sic] came from the German village of Algesheim in the Kurmainz region.
By the time that the 1798 census was taken, it appears that all surviving male lines of these Krotter families are living in the colony of Dehler.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 29, 32.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 130, 154, 155, 452.
- 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): Dl04, Dl34, Dl40.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 272.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 416, 419, 423.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #768, #965, #978, #979, #3522.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #1728, #1730.
Brent Mai