René Obert, his wife Katharina, and children (Georg, age 16½; Johann, age 15; Barbara, age 6; Katharina Barbara, age ¾) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 September 1766 aboard the galliot Adler under the Skipper Paul Adam Drath.
Genke [sic] Obert, his wife Catharina, and children (Georg, age 16½; Johann, age 15; Barbara, age 6; Cath. Barbara, age ¾, died en route) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767. [The list records that the father of the family died also, but it must have been his wife, as he is recorded with a new wife on the 1767 census of Brabander.]
They settled in the Volga German colony of Brabander on 19 August 1767. Renard Obert, his wife new Eva, and son Johannes are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 41 and Georg Obert and his new wife Anna Maria are recorded in Household No. 42.
In 1793, Johannes Obert and his family moved from Hölzel to Brabander.
Johann[es] Obert from Hölzel is recorded on the 1798 census of Brabander in Household No. Bn05.
Johann[es] Obert is recorded on the 1811 census of Brabander in Household No. 5 along with a note that he died in 1810.
The widow and children of Georg Obert from Brabander are recorded on the 1798 census of Seelmann in Household No. Sm59. At that point, his widow [Anna Maria Schmalzel] is recorded as having an illegitimate son Michael (age 7) whose surname is not recorded. Subsequent censuses of Seelmann record him with the surname of Obert.
Michael Obert and his family are recorded on the 1834 census of Seelmann in Household No. 131.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that René Obert came from France. The 1767 census records that he came from the French province of Languedoc.
- 1811 Brabander Census (Household No. 5).
- 1811 Seelmann Census (Household No. 57).
- 1813 Seelmann Census (Household No. 131).
- 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): Bn05, Sm59, Mv0947.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 224.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5952.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #6653-6658.
Brent Mai