VGI Updates
Meunier*
Precourt Meunier (age 40), his unnamed wife (age 29), and daughter Marie Angelique (age 9) are recorded on a list of French colonists dated September 1764. Precourt Meunier is recorded as an Officier brevete aide Major au Corps Royal des Arquebusier de France ["honorary" assistant Major in the French Royal Corps of infantrymen with a long gun called an arquebus]. Meunier also served as a recruiting director with DeBoffe.
Ottumwa, Wapello Co., Iowa
Volga German families settled in and around Ottumwa, Iowa.
Barstow, San Bernardino Co., California
Volga German families settled in and around Barstow, California.
Helmhof, Kr. Rhein-Neckar, Baden-Württemberg
Today, Helmhof is administratively part of the municipality of Neckarbischofsheim.
Siegel (Katharinenstadt)*
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.
Lumberton, Robeson Co., North Carolina
Volga German families settled in and around Lumberton, North Carolina.
Fayetteville, Cumberland Co., North Carolina
Volga German families settled in and around Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Lankaran (South Caucasus)
Today, Lankaran is located in the country of Azerbaijan.