Nicolaus Meyer, son of Christian Nicolas Meyer & Anne Elisabeth Scheyer, was born on 20 November 1747 in Ormersweiler, a village in the former area of Zweibrücken-Bitsch. By the time Nicolaus moved to Russia, this village was in an area that had been transferred to France. Today, Ormersweiler is known as Ormersviller, Mosselle Départment, in France.
Nicholas Meier and his family arrived in the Volga German colony of Louis on 14 June 1766. They are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 41.
According to research done by Sean McGinnis and Jérome Beining, this is the only Nicolaus Meyer in this Germanic area of France that did not die or get married and continue a family there.
There are 3 other Meier families that settled in the Volga German colony of Louis on 14 June 1766. They all came from the German village of Bitsch in the region of Lothringen. Their relationship to each other is not known.
(1) Jakob Meier, a farmer, and his wife Barbara are recorded on the 1767 census in Household No. 13.
(2) Peter Meier, a farmer, his wife Elisabeth, and his mother Margaretha recorded on the 1767 census in Household No. 39.
(3) Kaspar Meier, a farmer, and his wife Maria Elisabeth are recorded on the 1767 census in Household No. 51.
- 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): Ls04, Ls07.
- McGinnis, Sean. The Founding Families of Catharine, Kansas (2007).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 82, 89, 92.
Sean McGinnis
Jérome Beining
Brent Mai