There are several Schmidt families that settled in the Volga German colony of Boisroux on 7 June 1767. Two of them are believed to be related because they came from the same place in Germany, but their exact relationship is not recorded.
(1) Johann Christian Schmidt from Gohrau, eldest son of Christian Schmidt, married on 22 April 1745 in Seegrehna to Maria Catharina Stallbaum, pregnant daughter of the deceased Gottfried Stallbaum. Since she was pregnant, they had gone to another village in order to get married. Daughter Dorothea Elisabeth was born 7 July 1745 and baptized on 10 July 1745 in Rehsen, Anhalt-Dessau. They had a number of additional children.
In April 1767, the parish records of Rehsen note the departure of Christian Schmidt and his family.
An article by Hermann Wäschke records the following going to Russia:
Christian Schmidt, with wife and 5 children (three sons & two daughters, the oldest of whom was 18 years old), from Gohrau in the district of Dessau.
Christian Schmidt, a farmer, his wife Maria, and children (Maria, age 18; Christian, age 17½, Christoph, age 8; Gottlieb, age 4; Anna, age 6) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 10 August 1766 aboard a ship under the command of Skipper Nikolaus Peter Pink.
Christian Schmidt, his wife Maria, and children (Maria Dorothea, age 18; Christian, age 17¼; Christoph, age 8; Gottlieb, age 5) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that mother Maria and son Gottlieb died en route.
Sons Johann Christian and Christoph are recorded on the 1767 census of Boisroux in Household No. 28 with their older sister, the above noted Dorothea Elisabeth and her family.
In 1772, Christian Schmidt moved from Boisroux to Katharinenstadt.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Christian Schmidt came from the German region of Dessau.
(2) An article by Hermann Wäschke records the following going to Russia:
Friedrich Schmidt, a soldier (Soldat) of the Royal Prussian Battalion stationed in Brietzen, from Rehsen, born in Gorau [sic], with his wife and 3 children (one son & two daughters).
Friedrich Schmidt, a farmer, his wife Maria, and children (Anna, age 9; Friedrich, age 8; Maria, age 6) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard the English frigate Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax.
Friederich Schmidt, his wife Maria Sophia, and children (Anna Elisabet, age 12; Johan Friederich, age 8; Emanuel Valetin [sic], born en route; Maria Sophia [age not recorded]) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Boisroux and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 43.
The 1767 census records that Friedrich Schmidt came from the German village of Rehsen in the region of Dessau. A note on the 1767 census records that he was born in the village of Gohrau.
- 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): Bx45, Ka001, Mv0275.
- Mai, Brent Alan, trans. & ed. Transport of the Volga Germans from Oranienbaum to the Colonies on the Volga: 1766-1767 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1998): #4598-4603.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt. German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): #1147, #1149.
- Parish records of Rehsen.
- Parish records of Riesigk.
- Parish records of Seegrehna.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 141, 146.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1333, #4230.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #0660-0665, #5567-5572.
- Schmidt, David F. "Using Russian and German Records to Research Your Family Back to Germany." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 40:1 (Spring 2017): 29-34.
- Wäschke, Hermann. "Deutsche Familien in Russland" in Roland, Archiv für Stamm- und Wappenkunde, Jubiläumsschrift, 18 January 1912: 83, 88.
David Schmidt
Brent Mai
Pre-Volga Origin
Volga Colonies
Immigration Locations
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