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VGI Updates

Fort*

Georg Peter Fort (age 18) is recorded on the 1767 census of Hölzel in Household No. 39 along with the Georg Herrmann family. The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Fort and Herrmann families.

The 1767 census does not record from where Georg Peter Fort came.

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

Hoffmann (Hölzel)

Johannes Hofmann was born 4 October 1718 in Frensdorf. He married on 4 February 1754 in Frensdorf to Kunigunda Beck. She had been born 23 January 1723 in Untergreuth.

Johannes Michael Hofmann, son of Johannes Hofmann & Kunigunda Beck, was born 29 January 1756 in Frensdorf.

The father Johannes Hofmann died 12 January 1758 in Frensdorf.

Widow Kunigunda Hofmann née Beck remarried on 19 February 1759 in Frensdorf to Martin Ziegemann.

Mühlhausen*

Johann Georg Mühlhausen and his wife are recorded on the 1798 census of Hölzel in Household No. Hz39.

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

Weht

Jakob Weht, a farmer, his wife Margaretha, and children (Elisabeth, age 22; Johann Georg, age 18; Andreas, age 15; Barbara, age 11; Nikolaus, age 9; Anna Maria, age 7) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 29 July 1766 aboard the ship Apollo under the command of Skipper Friedrich Detloff Mörenberg.

Kessler (Hölzel / Preuss)

There are several interconnected Kessler families in the Volga German colonies of Hölzel and Preuss. Their relationship to each other, if any, needs further research.

(1) Johann Georg Kessler, a farmer, and his wife Katharina are recorded on the 1767 census of Hölzel in Household No. 50.

The 1767 census records that Johann Georg Kessler came from the German village of Hölzern in the Württemberg region.

(2) Johannes Kessler and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Preuss in Household No. Ps72.

Bally

This surname has been very confusing because of the variety of ways it has been recorded on Russian documents.

Johann Klaudius Bally, son of Johann B[aptiste] & Anna Bally from Valsonne, married Maria Elisabeth Rhein, a widow from Mainz, on 18 April 1746 in the Liebfrauen Church in Mainz. The official name of this Catholic parish is St. Maria ad Gradus, but it is commonly called Libfrauenkirche.

Zahl

Heinrich Zahl and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Bettinger in Household No. Bt32.

His descendants are recorded on the 1834 census of Bettinger in Households No. 71 & 73.