VGI Updates

Siegel (Katharinenstadt)*

Submitted by bmai on Sun, 04/28/2024 - 18:21

Maria Magdalena Siegel (age 22), her husband Jakob Staab, and her mother Barbara [surname assumed to be Siegel] (age 42) are recorded on the 1767 census of Katharinenstadt in Household No. 134.

The 1767 census records that Maria Magdalena Siegel came from the German village of Bellingen [?] in the region of Mavetz [?].

There are no known surviving male lines of this Siegel family among the Volga German colonies.

Brenna, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland

The village of Brenna is first mentioned in documents from 1490. It was part of the Kingdom of Bohemia which in 1526 became part of the Hapsburg of the Austria-Hungary Empire. From 1653, the village was one of those that belonged to the Teschener Kammer, a set of landed estates. After the fall of Austria-Hungary following World War I, this area was divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and Brenna fell on the Polish side of the border.

Lankaran (South Caucasus)

Submitted by bmai on Mon, 04/08/2024 - 16:43

Today, Lankaran is located in the country of Azerbaijan.

Zentner (Yagodnaya Polyana)

Submitted by bmai on Thu, 04/04/2024 - 22:16

Joseph Zentner was born in approximately 1795.  He served in Napoleon's army and fought against the Russians.  He was captured by the Russians, and in 1812, was settled in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana.

Joseph Zentner is recorded on the 1834 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. 100.

Joseph Zentner is recorded on the 1850 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. 155.

Joseph Zentner is recorded on the 1857 census of Yagodnana Polyana in Household No. 160.

Menges (Kaneau)*

Submitted by bmai on Sun, 03/31/2024 - 19:10

Leonhard Menges from Senck & Anna Regina Mathes, a widow, were married 28 April 1766 in the Lutheran Church of Büdingen.

Leonhard Menges, a farmer, his wife Anna, and [step-]son Georg [Mathes] (age 10) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard a galliot named Kronstadt under the command of Lieutenant Samuel Gibbs.

Leonhard Menges evidently died after arriving in Russia. His widow Anna is recorded on the 1767 census of Kaneau in Household No. 57 married to Georg Friedrich Baschka/Paske along with her son Johann Georg Mattis (age 10).