There are two apparently unrelated P(f)ister families that settled in the Volga German colony of Urbach.
Johann Nikolaus Pister, a farmer, his wife Susanna Katharina, son Johann Peter (age 20), and [step-]children (Katharina Elisabeth [Ikstadt], age 18; Maria Margaretha [Ikstadt], age 14; Anna Jakobina [Ikstadt], age 6½; Anton [Ikstadt], age 4¾; Johann Adam [Ikstadt], age 1) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 31 May 1766 aboard a galliot named Die Vergoldete Weintraube (The Gilded Grape) under the command of Skipper Joachim Hermann Andersen. It is possible that the youngest child (Johann Adam, age 1) is actually the son of Johann Nikolaus & Susanna Katharina Pister. [See Ikstadt Family.]
They evidently settled in Urbach. Son Johann Peter [Pister]'s widow and children from Urbach are recorded on the 1798 census of Frank in Household No. Fk125.
The 3 Pister brothers are recorded on the 1811 census of Frank in Household No. 125.
The 1834 census of Merkel (Household No. 30) records that Heinrich Pister moved from Frank to Merkel in 1823.
Bartholomaus Pister from Merkel and his family are recorded on the 1857 census of Ährenfeld.
Adam, Konrad, & Andreas Pister from Frank and their families are recorded on the 1857 census of Langenfeld.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Nikolaus Pister came from the German region of Darmstadt.
- 1811 Frank Census (Household No. 125).
- 1834 Merkel Census (Household No. 30).
- 1857 Ährenfeld Census.
- 1857 Langenfeld Census.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 29.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 135.
- 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): Fk125.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #803.
Brent Mai