VGI Updates

Johann Friedrich Merk, a surgeon (Feldscher), his wife Maria Agnessia, and daughter Maria Katharina (age 3) are recorded on the 1767 census of Jost in Household No. 52. They had settled there on 19 August 1767.

The 1767 census records that Johann Friedrich Merk came from the German village of Münsingen in the region of Schwaben (Swabia).

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

Gottlieb Gerber, a farmer, and his wife Maria Walpurgia arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 30 September 1766 aboard the pink Slon under the command of Lieutenant Sergey Panov.

Gottlieb Gerber and his wife Maria Walburga are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.

They settled in the Volga German colony of Hölzel on 11 September 1767. They are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 45.

Lorentz Kämmerer from Maÿnz & Catharina Völcker from Oberach were married on 1 March 1766 in the Lutheran Church of Büdingen.

Lorenz Kämmerer, a farmer, and his wife Katharina arrived from Reval [Estonia] at the port of Oranienbaum on 30 May 1766 aboard the pink Novaya Dvinka under the command of Lieutenant Ivan Perepechin.

Orphan Christina Hein (age 12½), daughter of the deceased Johann Georg Hein, is recorded on the 1767 census of Göbel in Household No. 60 along with the Konrad Göbel family.

The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Hein and Göbel families. The 1767 census record from where Christina Hein came.

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

Orphans Franziskus Hein (age 13) and his sister Magdalena (age 10), children of the deceased Johannes Hein, are recorded on the 1767 census of Göbel in Household No. 40 along with their sister Katharina Hein and her husband Lorenz Kemer. They had settled in Göbel on 25 May 1767.

The 1767 census does not record from where this Hein family came.

Johann Jakob Berkus, a farmer, his wife Anna Maria, and children (Maria Magdalena, age 12; Urias, age 8) are recorded on the 1767 census of Göbel in Household No. 67. They had settled there on 20 June 1767.

The 1767 census records that Johann Jakob Berkus came from the Austrian village of Kage [?].

Nikolaus Knecker, a single weaver (Schneider), is recorded on an appendix to the 1767 census of Paulskaya in Household No. 68 along with a note that he relocated to the colony of Biberstein in 1768.

The 1767 census records that Nikolaus Knecker came from the German region of Bamberg.

Johann Stephan Kesselring, a single linen weaver (Leineweber), is recorded on a list of Beauregard recruits attached to the 1767 census (No. 148) along with a note that he relocated to the colony of Biberstein in 1768.

The 1767 census records that Johann Stephan Kesselring came from the German region of Suhl.

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