ADOLPH ZIMMERLE FAMILY

     My Zimmerle family are Germans from Russia.  The first Zimmerle that we have knowledge of is Adolph.  He was born about 1797 in Germany.  As a young child he traveled from Germany to Russia in 1809 with his foster parents, Heinrich and Margareta Hoffman. The Hoffman family were from Rohrbach, in the district of Bergzabern, in the Palatinate, Germany.

•     The following is taken from the book, "Homesteaders on the Steppe" by Joseph S. Height.

The Beresan district

• The colony of Rohrbach. Est. 1809

• The village of Rohrbach was located in the Zerigul valley, 40 versts  west of the Bug river, and 100 versts northeast of Odessa.  It was only 20 versts from Landau, which was the administrative center of the newly established Beresan Colony.

• The Crownland apportioned to the colony of Rohrbach amounted to 8,333 desss. (or 22,500 acres), a tract of land large enough to provide a living for 150 families.  The first settlers, consisting of 26 families, were conducted to the Zerigul valley in the fall of 1809 by Chief Mayor Brittner of Grossliebental.  The following spring, Commissioner von Rosenkampf conducted another 69 families, with their leader Michael Kuhn, from their winter quarters in the colonies in the environs of Odessa, to the place of settlement.  Of the 95 families, 56 had emigrated fro Alsace and the Palatinate, 33 were from Baden, 4 from Würtemberg, and 2 from Prussian Poland; in all about 450 souls.  

• Since a large number of the earliest settlers were from the Palatinate, the settlement was named after the town of Rohrbach, in the district of Bergzabern.  It seems that the first homesteaders were put up in stone dwellings.  Each family also received the necessary livestock, farm equipment, and seed grain, for which the families were granted an advance loan of 100,490 rubles.  The cash assets of the immigrants amounted to some 40,000 rubles. 

• In 1813 another 27 families arrived from Prussian Poland, and 4 more families from Württemberg.  In 1816, according to the earliest available census, the village of Rohrbach had 130 families, with a population of 602 souls (312 men and 287 women).  From 1817 - 19 another 22 families, of which 16 were from Baden, were settled.  In the next two decades 31 families moved away to other colonies.  Despite this loss, however, the population of Rohrbach was 683 in 1838, and rose to 1,178 in 1847.  For the 217 families, the available area of Crownland per family was about 40 dess., or 100 acres.

•     Further on in the book it states:  

• "Out of partiality to the village of Rohrbach (Pfalz) from which they had emigrated, the two colonists Peter Schmidt and Peter Nuss, who arrived at this place among the first, gave the colony the name of Rohrbach."  (As Peter Nuss is known to have immigrated from Rohrbach/Bergzabern, Pfalz, the Rohrbach referred to was in the Palatinate, not in Baden.  Translator's note.)"

• Departures:  In `1818, ten families went to Grusinia, in 1823, 11 families moved to Odessa and to other colonies............  (This could explain why Johann on his immigration papers says he was from Odessa.  However, he could just have put that because it was a larger area).

    The above book is very interesting and gives good insight to how our Zimmerle family and related families lived in Russia.  It can be interlibrary loaned if your library doesn't happen to have the book.  I'm very fortunate that our library owns this book and is available for loan to all libraries in the United States.  There is also another book, "The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862" by Karl Stumpp which also has our family in it.  This book also is available for interlibrary loan.

    The family story is that Adolph was the father of Johann Zimmerle, who came over to the United States in 1879.  We have since found that Johann's parents were actually Georg Peter and Eva Katharine (Zimbelmann) Zimmerle.  Adolph, we believe. was the father of Georg Peter.  However, the records have not been filmed for the time period that Georg Peter was born.  They do show that Georg Peter and Eva Katharina had a son Johann born 27 September 1853 in the village of Rohrback. 

    Adolph married Eva Zimbelmann before 1830 in Rohrback, Russia.  They had five children that we know of.

  Georg Peter Zimmerle

  Eva Marie Zimmerle 

  Heinrich Zimmerle

Philipp Zimmerle

  Margaretha Zimmerle

    They lived in the village of Rohrbach, in the Beresan District, in south Russia.  They belonged to the Lutheran Evangelical Church.  The archives in the St. Petersburg Lutheran Evangelical have some of the Zimmerle birth, marriage, and death records.  They have been filmed by the LDS and can be ordered from their Family History Centers.  These records have been put on the internet at:  http://pixel.cs.vt.edu/library/odessa.html.  It is always best to order the films and view them yourselves.  

    Eva died 24 July 1843 in Rohrbach.  Adolph died 18 June 1846 in Rohrbach.  

    There will be more pages added to the Zimmerle family at a later time.  It will include many families.  Come back for updates.  

    I have by no means found all the information you will find in the following pages myself.  I have had a lot of help from the following people. 

  Judy Farris

  Beverly Burtz

    I especially want to thank Beverly giving me my start on the Zimmerle, Osborne, and Hooker families.  She doesn't have a computer but I would be happy to give you her address if you contact me and ask for her address.

    Judy has a lot of the information on the Zimmerle and Peter family.  

 Updated:  March 2002

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