Weather Report for Obermonjou: -9° C

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Some sources day that on this day, 5 March 1767, the Volga Mother colony of Obermonjou was founded.

The location of Obermanshu on
Karte der deutschen Siedlungen im Wolgagebiet
(Map of the German Settlements in the Volga Region, 
AHSGR map #6)

I'm not suggesting it was impossible that this colony was founded in winter in Russia in 1767. Germans are a hardy lot.  But perhaps it was more likely, as other sources indicate, that it was founded along with five other Mother colonies in the area on 7 June 1767.

Either way, the June colonies, like Obermonjou, were founded with the assistance of recruiter Baron Caneau de Beauregard.  In the first year, there were 82 households with 299 residents, most of whom were from areas in Hessen.

Obermonjou, or Obermanshu, as Stumpp spelled it on his Map of the German Settlements in the Volga Region (AHSGR map #6), was a Roman Catholic colony, but later there were both Catholic and Lutheran colonists, each belonging to their respective parishes in near-by Katharinenstadt. 

It was situated between Orlowskoje (founded 7 June 1767) and Katharinenstadt (founded 26 June 1766).  You can see from the map above, there were eventually lots of neighbors up and down the Volga.

Today, Obermonjou listed in the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's GeoNames database as an "abandoned populated place," with its ancestral name, Obermonzhu, still attached to it after 251 years.

GeoNames database notes "Obermonzhu" as a variant name to the abandoned colony.

Location of the defunct colony of Obermanshu (Obermonjou),
most recently known as Krivovskoye.

Learn More:

• American Historical Society of Germans from Russia – Village Files
• Center for Volga German Studies – Ober-Monjou
• Volga German Germans from Russia – History of Obermunjor
• Volga German Institute – Ober-Monjou 
• Wolgadeutsche – Obermongu, Church History

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