Martin Rittenherr, a farmer, his wife, and children (Johann, age 4; Katharina, age 1¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard the snow-brig named Maria Sophia under the command of Skipper Johann Bauert.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Seelmann on 5 September 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 61.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Martin Rittenherr came from the Alsace region. The 1767 census records that he came from the German village of Laudenberg.
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): 31.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 336.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 160.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2494.
Brent Mai