Two Schneidmüller families arrived in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana on 16 September 1767. The first has been located in the German village of Sellnrod. The second is recorded as being from the neighboring village of Bobenhausen [not to be confused with the Bobenhausen that is near Büdingen].
(1) Johannes Schneidmüller, son of Martin Schneidmüller & Anna Margartha Hessler, was born 1 May 1724 in Sellnrod and baptized there on 4 May 1724. He married in Sellnrod on 13 May 1751 to Anna Margaretha Stürtz from Wohnfeld.
The births/baptisms of 4 children of Johannes Schneidmüller & Anna Margaretha Stürtz are recorded in the parish register of Sellnrod: (1) Anna Elisabetha, born 25 September 1755, baptized 27 September 1755; (2) Johann Henrich, born 15 January 1758, baptized 15 January 1758, died 15 January 1758; (3) Johann Peter, born 19 March 1759, baptized 21 March 1759; and (4) Johann Henrich, born 21 September 1763, baptized 23 September 1763.
Johann Schneidmüller, a farmer, his wife Anna Margaretha, and son Peter (age 7) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 18 August 1766 aboard the galliot named Die Perle (The Pearl) under the command of Skipper Gerhardt Hermann Thomsen.
Johannes Schneidmuller [sic], his wife Anna Margretha, and children (Johann Peter, age 8; Anna Elisabeth, born en route) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that father Johannes and daughter Anna Elisabeth died in route.
Johann Peter Schneidmüller (age 7), son of the deceased Johann Schneidmüller, is recorded on the 1767 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. 2 living with the Christoph Konschu family.
Peter Schneidmüller and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. Yp87.
The 1767 census records that Johann Peter Schneidmüller came from the German region of Darmstadt.
(2) The parish register of Bobenhausen records that Johann Peter Schneidmüller, son of Johannes & Anna Elisabetha Schneidmüller, was born 11 August 1742 and baptized 12 August 1742.
Johann Peter Schneidmüller from Bobenhausen in the district of Ulrichstein & Anna Veronica Flach from Seiberterode were married on 3 July 1766 in the Lutheran Church of Büdingen.
Johann Peter Schneidmüller and his wife Anna Veronika arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 18 August 1766 aboard the galliot named St. Johannes (Saint John) under the command of Skipper Carstens Stahl.
Johann Peter Schneidmuller, his wife Feronica, and sister Cathrina are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They are recorded on the 1767 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. 38.
Johannes Schneidmüller and Andreas Schneidmüller, apparently sons of Johann Peter Schneidmüller, are recorded on the 1798 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. Yp85.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johan Peter Schneidmüller was a miller while the 1767 census records that he was a farmer.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Peter Schneidmüller came from the German region of Darmstadt. The 1767 census records that Johann Peter Schneidmüller came from the German village of Bobenhausen near Büdingen [this is not correct; he came from the Bobenhausen near Ulrichstein].
[Barbara Schneidmüller, a single woman, arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 18 August 1766 aboard the galliot named St. Johannes (Saint John) under the command of Skipper Carstens Stahl along with Johann Peter Schneidmüller and his wife Veronika. She has not been located on other documents following her arrival in Oranienbaum. The Oranienbaum passenger list records that she came from the German region of Darmstadt.]
- Kromm, Georg, translation of Yagodnaya Polyana First Settlers List published by Art and Cleo Flegel in “Research in Hesse”, Work Paper of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia XIII (December 1973).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 788, 792.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Yp85, Yp85a, Yp87.
- 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): 7131-7134, 7202-7204.
- 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): #727.
- Parish register of Büdingen.
- Parish register of Bobenhausen II.
- Parish register of Ober-Ohmen (including Unter-Seibertenrod).
- Parish register of Sellnrod (LDS Film No. 1201577).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 174, 182.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6297, #6337, #6343.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #8245-8248, #8316-8317.
- Stahnke, Günter, ed. Ortsfamilienbuch Sellnrod [Online].
Brent Mai
Maggie Hein