Martin Mühlfelder, a farmer, his wife Christina, and children (Sebastian, age 11; Kunigunda, age 8; Maria, age 6; Ernst, age 2½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 16 August 1766 aboard a galliot named Die Wachsamkeit (Vigilance) under the command of Skipper Jacob Heinrich Sager.
Martin Mühlfelder, his wife Christina, and children (Sebastian, age 11; Cunigunda, age 9; Anna Cunigunda, age 6; Ernestus, age 4) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that son Sebastian died in route.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Leitsinger on 5 September 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 63.
Following the destruction of Leitsinger, surviving members of the Mühlfelder family resettled to the colony of Neu-Kolonie.
Martin Mühlfelder, his wife Magdalena (widow of Johannes Kloster), and stepson are recorded on the 1798 census of Neu-Kolonie in Household No. Nk39.
The death of Magdalena Mühlfeld[er] of Neu-Kolonie (age 63) is recorded on 18 October 1803 in the parish register of Preuss.
Kunigunda Rau née Mühlfelder (age 39) and her family are recorded on the 1798 census of Neu-Kolonie in Household No. Nk32.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Martin Mühlfelder came from the German region of Bamberg. The 1767 census records that Martin Mühlfelder came from the German village of Pikotn in the Bamberg region.
There are no known surviving male lines of this family among the Volga German colonies.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 767.
- 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): Nk32, Nk39.
- Parish register of Preuss.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 74.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6141.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #7594-7599.
Brent Mai