Heinrich Mercks, a farmer, his wife Anna, and children (Barbara, age 14; Johann, age 11; Johannes, age 5; Heinrich, age 3) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 12 September 1766 aboard the English frigate Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax.
Heinrich Mercks [sic], his wife Anna Maria, and chidlren (Barbara, age 14; Johannes, age 11; Johannes [again], age 5) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that the mother Anna Maria died en route.
In 1776, Johannes Marx [sic] moved from Zug to Luzern.
Johannes Merks and his wife are recorded on the 1798 census of Luzern in Household No. Lz08.
The death of Johannes Merks in 1828 (apparently without male heirs) is recorded on the 1834 census of Luzern in Household No. 75.
The Oranienbaum passenger list rcords that Heinrich Mercks came from the German region of Mainz.
There are no known surviving male linesof this Merks family among the Volga German colonies.
- 1834 Luzern Census (Household No. 75).
- 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): Lz08, Mv3056.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766 (Saratov: State Technical University, 2010): #5487.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #3719-3723.
Brent Mai