Johann Andreas Metzler, son of Johann Heinrich Metzler & Anna Magdalena Nenner, was born on 27 April 1719 in Langstadt, north of Gross-Umstadt in Hessen. He married first to Elisabetha Catharina Dörr, daughter of Andreas Dörr & Maria Margaretha Daniel, on 17 February 1750 in Groß-Bieberau, southeast of Darmstadt. She had been born there on 6 February 1721.
They had a number of children in Groß-Bieberau: (1) Anna Barbara, born 24 November 1751, died 30 April 1754; (2) Georg Philipp, born 16 June 1754; (3) Georg Nicolaus, born 5 February 1757; (4) Johann Philipp, born 20 November 1759, died 16 December 1765; and (5) Georg Heinrich, born in 1762, died 16 December 1765.
Elisabetha Catharina died on 15 September 1763, and Andreas remarried in Groß-Bieberau on 4 September 1764 to Anna Barbara Keil, daughter of Johann Keil. They had one son (Johannes, born 13 March 1766) before leaving for Russia.
Andreas Metzler, a farmer, his wife Anna, and children (Philipp, age 12; Johann, age 10; Johann, age ½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 21 July 1766 aboard a koff named Alette under the command of Skipper Wybe Hendricks.
Leonhard Menges, a farmer, his wife Maria Barbara, and [step?-]sons (Georg Philipp [Metzler], age 15; Georg Nikolaus [Metzler], age 12; Georg Peter [Fromm], age 12) are recorded on the 1767 census of Shcherbakovka in Household No. 42. [See Menges and Fromm Families.] They had arrived in Shcherbakovka on 18 August 1767.
Georg Philipp Metzler is recorded on the 1798 census of Dobrinka in Household No. Db45.
Nikolaus Metzler from Shcherbakovka is recorded on the 1798 census of Dobrinka in Household No. Db33.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Andreas Metzler came from the German region of Darmstadt.
- 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): 460.
- 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): Db33, Db45.
- Ortsfamilienbuch Groß-Bieberau (online)
- Parish records for Langstadt - LDS Film No. 1340337.
- Parish records for Groß-Bieberau - LDS Film No. 1190548.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 255.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3595.
Peter Aifeld
Retta Donovan
Brent Mai
Viktor2 on the Wolgadeutsche.net Forum