Johannes Mehler and Elisabetha Schäfer

1. Boyd, Darryl et al. (trans.), Köhler Parish Records, 1803-1895, Concord, CA, 2021.
2. Boyd, Darryl et al. (trans.), Köhler Parish Records, 1839-1866, Concord, CA, 2022.
3. Köhler church records in the Saratov Province State Archive, research by Dr. Igor Pleve, November 2019, translation by Wadim Eichmann.
4. Church records of Semenovka parish from Saratov Province State Archive. Retrieved by Wadim Eichmann and extracted by Michelle Boyd.
5. Boyd, Darryl (compiler) & Gartner, Angela (translator), Leichtling, Russia 1850 Census, Concord, CA, 2006.
6. Eichmann, Wadim (translator), Leichtling, Russia 1857 Census, Concord, CA, 2019.
7. Transcript of taped interview of Jacob Mahler, interviewed by grandson Frank Jaycob Boyd, transcribed by Michelle A. Boyd.

Excerpt from the transcripts of an Interview with Jacob John Mahler by grandson, Frank Jaycob Boyd  

HOW MANY WERE IN YOUR FAMILY?  HOW MANY BROTHERS AND SISTERS DID YOU HAVE?
Four brothers and sisters, two of each.

WHAT WERE THEIR NAMES?
John and Jake and Margret and Barbra.  Barbara es war die Younge, the little one.

WHEN YOU LIVED BACK THERE, WAS YOUR DAD A FARMER?
Ya, he had a section of land in the old country.  Now how much is a section of land here?  That's four, four, and 160 on each corner, a 160 acres.  Four times six is how much?  24, OK and four times six again, that's ten acres, see, and then the other, that's two acres or three acres, see, it's all figured out.  Mama, she figured all that out.They send over here how many acres and she went in the book and find out what that was.  It was a little more than an acre here.  I don't know how much but a little more than an acre here.

DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR GRANDPA?
Ya, just a little.

WHAT WAS HIS NAME?
Johnnas...John.

WHAT WAS YOUR GRANDMOTHER'S NAME?
Margret, I don't know, I never, she died young. I wasn't even born when she died.

HOW MANY AUNTS AND UNCLES DID YOU HAVE?
Four uncles.

WHAT WERE THEIR NAMES?
Andrew, Mike, and Pete and...I don't know.

WHAT WAS THE FIRST ONE AGAIN?
Andrew.

SO THERE WERE FOUR BROTHERS?
Uh huh.

AND WHICH ONE WAS YOUR FATHER?
Peter.  Did I didn't name that?  Didn't I name that?  Didn't I name Peter?

UH HUH.  WHAT DID YOUR GRANDFATHER DO?  WAS HE A FARMER TOO?
Oh, he had, I don't know how many.  He had a lot of land. Oh ya, he gave my father a section of land, five-hundred and some acres.  That's what we got and we got a pair of oxen and four head of horses, cows, sheep, hogs, chicken, anything and that's what I got my father from his dad, that's what he got from his dad.

YOU TOLD ME BEFORE THAT HE BUILT THEM A HOUSE OR HELPED THEM BUILD HOUSES.
They did...No.  You know them houses were built like that,...what they call them?...a section...or a half-section...or 160 acres?  Whatever they call them.

A HOMESTEAD?
Ya, my grandfather had a homestead from Germany.

HE CAME FROM GERMANY?  YOUR GRANDFATHER DID?
My grandfather did!  No!  My grandfather's father.  They came from Germany!  The Germans pushed them over there and gave them all the land they want.

THAT'S YOUR GRANDFATHER'S FATHER?
Father, ya.  Great-grandfather came from Germany.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT HIS NAME WAS?
No, I don't know.  We don't have much talk about it. So, I don't know what the heck to tell you.

NOW, HOW DID YOU HAPPEN TO COME TO THE UNITED STATES?
My father, he was an inspector.  He was a man, find out what the world does.  Now here, they had a section of land or more and you know we bought machinery and out there the neighbors, I, and the machine.  On a machine, we harvest, we scythe it, we plant our seed, we farm a farm.  And I used my machine, whatever it was and the neighbors used it but they had four or five men and they helped me.

NOW, WAS THAT AFTER YOU GOT TO THE U.S. OR BACK IN RUSSIA?
Back in Russia.  Ya, and then my father wasn't satisfied he gonna give him the money to send him over here.  And, then, when he was over here one year and he says,"Daddy, I want Jakob over here, Jacob, Jake, your brother.  Came over one year and said he wanted Jake.  Ya, he wanted me over here and that's what I got.

NOW, WHAT DID YOU DO ON THE MACHINE?  DIDN'T YOU RIDE ON IT, YOU TOLD ME?
Ya, I put four head of horses on it and I cut the wheat, barley, pats, whatever we had.  Potatoes, the potatoes are stuck on the top, you know, they cut them off.  They used everything and we had the machine.  Plows, we had a plow and put a tractor on the farm.

A TRACTOR?
A machine.

IT WAS HORSE DRAWN, THOUGH?  PULLED BY HORSES?
Ya, some we had was pulled by horses.  The double header was with a machine and one plow.  We had one head of horses on one plow,you know what one plow is?  And the other one was two plows and it had a motor on it. They had a machine on it.

AND THAT'S WHEN YOU WERE A BOY IN RUSSIA?
Uh huh.

SO YOU CAME?
Uh huh.  I was over a couple of years and we had money saved.  We worked in one pocket book, not split.  We had enough money to bring them over here.  Sister and the Brother-in-law, Mother and Dad.  That's four, five of them.  ---------------------------------------

TELL ME THAT AGAIN IN ENGLISH.
Oh, Russia stopped them from coming and Germany.  He went home to Germany.  I don't know how they work that.  You know, he paid to get me back or whoever it was and my Mama and Dad and sister and her husband.  They made us go back.Tell them they couldn't do nothing. We had $4,000.  We had to put $2,000 extra to support and the rest of 'em was for fare and support for coming over here.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THEM?
They took 'em back.  They starved my dad to death.  They didn't give 'em nothing to eat. And we sent them $27,000 now.  Rubles, we send 'em out to bring them over, see?  That would take that much and a little bit more and they had a good security to come over and they stopped and took everything from them.

WAS THAT THE BOLSHEVIKS?
Ya, Bolsheviks. '13 or '14.  I still remember that.

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MOTHER?
They died!  Starved 'em to death.  Well, they were old.  Mama was 70 and my Dad was 80 or something, an old man, too!  Like I am now.  And mother was 70, maybe 75, or whatever it is.  You know they didn't have no way to know.  I had a passport.  I still got it.  Tells my time on there.

HOW DID YOU FIND OUT THEY HAD DIED?
They sent over here, they sent a over. See the dead, they send a document. They let that go through.

JUST A LETTER?
Ya, just a letter.

YOU GOT A LETTER SAYING THEY WERE DEAD?
Uh-huh. And my brother-in-law, they took him in the army. I don't know. We never found out what happened to him.

AND YOUR SISTER?  YOU NEVER FOUND OUT?
No, we didn't know what happened.  You couldn't find out.

AND THEY WERE ALL FROM LEIGHTING?
Uh-huh. I and my brother, we tried to find out what they are, and we had saved money.  See, we wanted to bring them over here.  We went through the Red Cross.  They couldn't even find their names.

SO YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?
See, we went through all the big stuff, and, well, whatever, the importing, whatever you call them where the people come in.

IMMIGRATION?
Immigration.  We went through there.  Nothing.  Through immigration, Red Cross, Blue Cross, and all kinds of ways and you send a few dollars and you get it but they couldn't get the persons.  I don't know what happened to them, I tell you, when they went over there, then, they brought 'em back. That was tough.

...

Köhler Church Records

Mehler-Nahm 6.11.1873
Column 1: Peter Mehler
Column 2: 37 (Index of record in current month)
Column 3: 6th of November
Column 4: 6.11.1873 in Karaulny-Buerak Romic Catholic Church priest Philipp Dorzweiler announced
three times, which were made on 28th of october, 1st of november and 3rd of november.
Column 5: Colonist Peter Mehler, yooung man (in this case means unmarried before) 19 years old with
maiden Margaretha Nahm, 20 years old, both from Ilavlya (Leichtling) of Karaulny Buerak (Köhler)
parish in Ilavlya (Leichtling) married.
Column 6: Colonists Johann Mehler and Elisabetha Schäfer, legal spouses's son and Matthias Nahm and
Katharina Schtremel, legal spouses's daughter with witnesses Gottfried Schäfer and Peter Sänger.

Mehler Peter 15.10.1855
Column 1: Mehler
Column 2: 162 (Index of record in current month)
Column 3: 15 (day of birth)
Column 4: 15 (day of baptism)
Column 5: 15.10.1855 in Karaulny-Buerak Romic Catholic Church the baby named Peter is baptized
by abbot of Karaulny Buerak Romic Church Johann Lozinsky with the performance of all rites of the
sacrament.
Column 6: Colonists Johann Mehler and Elisabetha maiden name Klitsch(??? very probably misspelled),
legal spouses's son was born 15.10.1855 in Ilavlya (Leichtling).
Column 7: Receivers were colonists Peter Dieser with Barbara Gergenster.
Column 8: Godparents were colonists Valentin Messler and Jacob Mehler.

Mehler-Schäfer 18.11.1851
Column 1: empty
Column 2: 22 (Index of record in current month)
Column 3: 18 (day of marriage)
Column 4: 18.11.1851 in Karaulny-Buerak Romic Catholic Church abbot Johann Lozinsky announced three
times, which were made on 4th of november, 11th of november and 18th of november.
Column 5: Colonist Johann Mehler, yooung man (in this case means unmarried before) 20 years old with
maiden Elisabetha Schäfer, 22 years old, both from Ilavlya (Leichtling) of Karaulny Buerak (Köhler)
parish in Ilavlya (Leichtling) married.
Column 6: Colonists Franz Mehler and Anna Maria Haberkorn, legal spouses's son and Franz Schäfer and
Barbara Resch, legal spouses's daughter with witnesses Jacob Shneider and Jacob Rock.

Mehler-Miller 29.1.1880
Column 1: Mehler
Column 2: 5 (index of marriages in this month)
Column 3: 29 (day of month)
Column 4: 29.01.1880 in Romic Church of Karaulny-Buerak (Köhler)
Parish the marriage has been confirmed. (Simplified translation,
because there some kind of religious formula used)
Column 5: Colonist Peter Meler, widower, 24 years old with Margaretha
Miller, maiden, 21 years old, both from colony Ilavlya (Leichtling) of
Karaulny-Buerak (Köhler) Parish.
Column 6: Village colonists Johannes Mehler and Elisabetha Schefer
(Schäfer?), legal spouses's son and Johannes Miller and Elisabeth
Berger, legal spouses's daughter. Witnesses are Peter and Matthias
Schneider.

Source: Köhler church records in the Saratov Province State Archive, research by Dr. Igor Pleve, November 2019, translation by Wadim Eichmann.

Line number    Year    Birth         Baptism    Given name    Father                       Mother                              Colony        Parish of record

8                       1832     Aug 28    Aug 30     Joannes           Franz Mehler           Anna Maria Haberkorn    Leichtling    Semenovka

144                   1852     Nov 4      Nov 5       Jacob               Johannes Mehler   Elisabeth Schäfer              Leichtling    Köhler

162                   1855     Oct 15    Oct 15      Peter                Johannes Mehler    Elisabeth Schäfer              Leichtlin 

165                   1858     Jun 9       Jul 9         Andreas           Johannes Müller      Elisabeth Schäfer             Leichtling

25                     1861     Feb 3      Feb 5        Apollonia         Johannes Mehler    Elisabeth Schäfer              Leichtling

39                     1873     Mar 2      Mar 2       Barbara            Johann Muller         Elizabeth Schaefer            Leichtling

Line number    Marriage date        Groom                         Bride                           Bride's village       Colony where married
Groom's parents                                                                   Bride's parents                                         Parish of record

22                     1851 Nov 18            Johannes Mehler        Elisabeth Schäfer      Köhler                    Köhler
Franz Mehler            Anna Maria Haberkorn                      Franz Schäfer        Barbara Resch          Köhler

56                     1869 Nov 24            Jacob Mehler             Catharina Hilgert      Göbel                     Leichtling
Johannes Mehler    Elisabeth Schäfer                                Anton Hilgert        Magdalene Merkel    Köhler

37                     1873 Nov 6              Peter Mehler               Margarethe Nahm    Leichtling               Leichtling
Johannes Melher    Elisabeth Schäfer                               Matthias Nahm     Catharina Strömel     Köhler

44                     1878 Nov 6              Andreas Mehler         Catharina Schröder   Leichtling              Köhler
Johannes Mehler    Elisabeth Schäfer                               Peter Schröder      Elisabeth Molitor        Köhler

5                       1880 Jan 29            Peter Mehler               Margarethe Müller     Leichtling              Köhler
Johannes Mehler    Elisabeth Schäfer                               Johannes Müller    Elisabeth Berger        Köhler

Source: Boyd, Darryl et al. (trans.), Köhler Parish Records, 1803-1895, Concord, CA, 2021.

Church Records of Semenovka Parish

[Aug 1832]
Place of birth: Ilavla
Text: Die 30 Ego qui sup: bap: Inf: Nne Joannem nat: 28 h: CC LL Franciscus Mehler et an: Maria Haberkornin LW: Joannes Mehler cum An: Maria Krohin Juvens
Translation: The 30th I, aforenamed [V. Snarsky], baptized the infant named Johannes born this 28. Legitimate spouses Franciscus Mehler and Anna Maria Haberkorn. [Witnesses?] Johannes Mehler with Anna Maria Kroh, [youths?]
Nomen et cognomen [names]: Joannes Mehler
Year collection: 1832
Image: 14
 
Source: Church records of Semenovka parish from Saratov Province State Archive. Retrieved by Wadim Eichmann and extracted by Michelle Boyd.

Births and Baptisms

Image            Line    Year    Birth               Baptism     Child          Father                       Mother                        Village

1852B (72)      144     1852    11    4            11  5          Jacob        Johannes Mehler    Elisabetha Schäfer     Leichtling

1861B (6)        25       1861    2      3            2    5          Apollonia   Johannes Meler      Elisabetha Schefer     Leichtling

1863B (19)      95       1863    5      31          5    31        Gottfried    Johannes Mehler    Elisabetha Schäfer     Leichtling

1866B (23)      111     1866    5      24          5    24        Nicolaus     Johannes Mehler    Elisabetha Schäfer     Leichtling

Marriages

Image: 1851M (9)
Line: 22
Date: 1851    11    18
Groom: Johann Meler
   Age: 20
   Village: Leichtling
Bride: Elisabetha Schäfer
   Age: 22
   Village: Leichtling
Where married: Köhler
Groom's parents: Franz Meler [Mehler]
                              Anna Maria Gaberkorn [Haberkorn]
Bride's parents: Franz Schäfer
                           Barbara Resch

Deaths

Image           Line    Year    Est. birth year    Age            Date        Name                        Village             Parents

1864D (23)    191    1864    1860                    4                  8    8         Anton Mehler           Leichtling        Johannes Mehler    Elisabetha Schäfer

1865D (18)    118    1865    1865                    2 months    7    24       Catharina Mehler    Leichtling        Johannes Mehler    Elisabetha Schäfer

1864D (25)    208    1864    1862                    2                  8    22       Gottfried Mehler      Leichtling        Johannes Mehler    Elisabetha Schäfer

Source: Boyd, Darryl et al. (trans.), Köhler Parish Records, 1839-1866, Concord, CA, 2022.

1850

Leichtling, Russia

No.	Names	Age (1850)	Moved or Died	Age At Last Census (1834)
18	Friedrich Meler	--	Died 1846	51
	wife: not listed
	sons:
	1. George Meler	43		27
	wife: Elisabeta	40
	sons:
	a. Nikolaus Meler	15
	b. Jakob Meler	11
	c. Peter Meler	9
	d. Michael Meler	1
	daughters:
	a. Barbara Meler	20
	b. Anna Margarita Meler	18
	2. Franz Meler	38		22
	wife: Anna Maria	38
	sons:
	a. Johannes Meler	18		2
	b. Peter Meler	2
	daughters:
	a. Anna Maria Meler	10
	b. Eva Elisabeta Meler	5
	3. Johannes Meler	--	Died 1848	20
	4. Peter Meler	29		13
	wife: Christina	27
	son:
	a. Peter Meler	7
	5. Jakob Meler	25		9
	wife: Anna Maria	19

Source: Boyd, Darryl (compiler) & Gartner, Angela (translator), Leichtling, Russia 1850 Census, Concord, CA, 2006.

1857

Leichtling, Russia

No. in 1850	No. in 1857	Names	Age in 1850	Moved or died	Age in 1857
18	20	Georg Mehler	43	Died 1852	-
		Georg's wife Elisabetha	-		47
		Georg's sons:
		1. Nikolaus Mehler	15		22
		Nikolaus' wife Elisabetha	-		21
		Nikolaus' daughter:
		1) Katharina Mehler	-		½
		2. Jakob Mehler	11		18
		3. Peter Mehler	9		16
		4. Michael Mehler	1		8
		Georg's brother Franz Mehler	38		45
		Franz's wife Anna Maria	-		45
		Franz's sons:
		1. Johannes Mehler	18		25
		Johannes' wife Elisabetha	-		27
		Johannes' sons:
		1) Jakob Mehler	-		5
		2) Peter Mehler	-		2
		2. Peter Mehler	2		9
		3. Georg Mehler	-		7
		4. Johannes Mehler	-		4
		Franz's daughter:
		1. Elisabetha Mehler	-		13
		Georg's brother Peter Mehler	29		36
		Peter's wife Christina	-		34
		Peter's sons:
		1. Peter Mehler	7		14
		2. Matthias Mehler	-		4
		3. Andreas Mehler	-		1¼
		4. Jakob Mehler	-		1¼
		Georg's brother Jakob Mehler	25		32
		Jakob's wife Anna Maria	-		26
		Jakob's daughters:
		1. Anna Maria Mehler	-		3
		2. Elisabetha Mehler	-		1

Source: Eichmann, Wadim (translator), Leichtling, Russia 1857 Census, Concord, CA, 2019.