Three Meininger families traveled together from Germany to Russia and all settled in the Volga German colony of Messer. Their relationship to each other, if any, needs further research.
(1) Friedrich Meininger, a farmer, his wife Barbara, his mother-in-law Anna [Zeller], and brother-in-law Johann [Zeller] (age 16¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard an English frigate named Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax.
Friedrich Meininger (age 36), a farmer, his wife Barbara, his mother-in-law Anna Zeller (age 47), and brother-in-law Johannes Zeller (age 16) are recorded on the 1767 census of Messer in Household No. 40. They had arrived in Messer in 18 June 1767.
(2) Johannes Meininger was baptized 26 December 1722 in Mittel-Gründau. He married on 10 February 1746 in Gründau to Anna Katharina Daut. She had been baptized 25 June 1727 in Mittel-Gründau.
Johann Meininger, a farmer, his wife Anna, children ([Anna] Christina, age 17¼; Johann[es], age 13; Anna [Maria], age 11; [Johann] Peter, age 6½; Just, age 5¼; Heinrich, age ¼), and his brother-in-law Wilhelm [Daut] (age 20) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard an English frigate named Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax.
Widower Johannes Meininger (age 42), a farmer, his children (Christina, age 18; Johannes, age 15; Maria, age 12; Peter, age 6; Just, age 5; Heinrich, age 3) are recorded on the 1767 census of Messer in Household No. 41 along with orphan [his brother-in-law] Wilhelm Daut (age 21). They had arrived in Messer on 18 June 1767.
In 1790, Johannes Meininger and his family moved from Messer to Franzosen.
In 1797, Johann Just Meininger moved from Messer to Kolb.
(3) Johann Meininger (age 34), a farmer, his wife Katharina, and daughter Maria (age 1¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard an English frigate named Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax along with servant Johann Müller.
Johannes Meininger, a farmer, and his wife Katharina are recorded on the 1767 census of Messer in Household No. 42. They had arrived in Messer on 18 June 1767.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that these Meininger families came from the German region of Isenburg.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 29.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 242.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Fz25, Ko48, Ms06, Ms25, Mv1729, Mv1755.
- Parish register of Gründau & Gelnhausen.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 141.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1728, #1729.
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai