Johann Paul Seelmann, a stone mason, his wife Magdalena, and children (Magdalena, age 20; Franziscus, age 16; Michael, age 1) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 11 June 1766 aboard the snow-brig named Der Jäger under the command of Skipper Gabriel Will.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Seelmann on 15 July 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 1.
The 1767 census also notes that Johann Paulus Seelmann is serving as the colony's mayor (Vorsteher), and it is after him that the colony was named.
The 1767 census records that Johann Paulus Seelmann came from the German village of Gemünden in the Würzburg region.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 30.
- 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): Sm43.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 149.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2139.
Brent Mai
Pre-Volga Origin
Volga Colonies
Immigration Locations
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