The city of Büdingen was a major recruiting and gathering point for individuals and families who wished to emigrate to Russia. The Russian authorities preferred married couples and families, resulting in many hastily arranged marriages among single colonists wishing to travel to Russia. Other major gathering points were Lübeck and Roßlau.
The First Settlers Lists (FSL) are an an important resource for Volga German genealogy research. It can be frustrating when you discover that your ancestor does not seem to be on those lists. One possibility to consider is that your ancestor is on the FSL, but listed under a different surname.
The 1767 Census, often called the "First Settlers List", is the primary source document for determining the origin locations of Volga German settlers.
The information reported varies somewhat depending on the village you are looking at, but generally these lists include the following details about each family:
• Names and ages of each family member
• Religion
• Profession of the head of the household
• The town or region that they came from
Church records are a key element in documenting the location in Europe where your ancestor lived prior to emigrating to Russia. Here is a summary of web sites where you might find parish records:
Where is Hanau? That might seem like a silly question. Anyone with a computer can search for "Hanau" and learn that it is a city in Germany, just east of Frankfurt. "Hanau" might also refer to a region in Hessen that was formerly known as the County of Hanau.
But this is Volga German genealogy research, and it isn't always that simple.
I will refer to the Kulberg Lists in many future blog posts, so I think it would be a good idea to explain what those Lists are and why they are important for Volga German genealogy research.
What do these four places have in common?
You will not find villages with these names on a map of Germany. In spite of that fact, all four of these places appear in the published translations of the First Settler’s Lists. “Gebershein" and “Heckeberg” are reported as origin locations on the Kolb First Settler’s List, and “Höhenbergheim” and “Deckerbergheim” are reported as origin locations on the Walter First Settler’s List.