Valentin Werth, a farmer, his wife Margartha, and children (Johann, age 5¼; Anna, age ½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 2 August 1766 aboard an English frigate named Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax.
Valentin Wehr [sic], his wife Margaretha, and children (Johann Michaell, age 5; Anna Maria, age ¼) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that Anna Maria died en route.
They are recorded on the 1767 list of Beauregard recruits in Household No. 90 along with a note that they settled in the Volga German colony of Schönchen in 1768.
Johann Werth (age 28), presumed son of Valentin Werth, and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Schönchen in Household No. Sn42.
Andreas Werth (age 24), presumed son of Valentin Werth, and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Schönchen in Household No. Sn36.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Valentin Werth came from the German region of Pfalz while the Beauregard list records that he came from the German village of Mehring.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 33.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 688.
- 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): Sn36, Sn42, Mv1616.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 367.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5468.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #3689-3692.
Brent Mai