Caspar Nikel, a shepherd (Schäfer), died 6 November 1715 in Freidendiz [?]. His first [unnamed] wife died 12 March 1687. His second [unnamed] wife died 7 July 1712.
Johannes Nickel, son of Caspar Nikel & his first wife, died 6 February 1732 in Wolfenhausen at the age of 70. He married 20 October 1691 to Anna Elisabetha Fachinger, daughter of Michel Fachinger. She died 1 April 1714 in Wolfenhausen at the age of 54. He remarried to Anna Margaretha [surname unknown].
Georg Wilhelm Nickel, a shepherd (Schäfer), son of Johannes Nickel & Anna Elisabetha Fachinger, was born in Freidendiz [?]. He married Maria Elisabeth [surname unknown].
The baptisms of two children of Georg Wilhelm & Maria Elisabeth Nickel are recorded on the parish register of Wolfenhausen: (1) Johann Wilhelm, born 11 October 1747, baptized 13 October 1747; and (2) Anna Katharina, born 2 January 1754, baptized 4 January 1754.
The children immigrated to Russia. Wilhelm Nickel, a single farmer, and his sister Anna Katharina arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 14 June 1766 aboard a ship named Die Neue Fortuna (The New Fortune) under the command of Skipper Ahrens Steingraber.
Wilhelm Nickel is recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Wilhelm Nickel (age 21), his wife Anna Kathairna (age 28), and his sister Katharina (age 20) are recorded on the 1767 census of Warenburg in Household No. 140. They had arrived in Warenburg on 12 May 1767.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Wilhelm Nickel came from the German region of Runkel. The 1767 census records that he came from the German village of Wolfenhausen in the region of Rumpel.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 30.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 279.
- 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): Wr008.
- Parish register of Wolfenhausen (LDS Film No. 1195145).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 342.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2034.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #1794.
Wayne Bonner
Brent Mai
WaldemarG (Wolgadeutsche.net Forum)