This page was begun on 16 June 2001 -- rak. Page references are to the Beratz book cited in full in Peter and Catherine above.
"After the organizing of larger travel groups, the recruited emigrants left the assembly points [in the interior of Germany], under the leadership of the [Russian] commissioners, to travel to Luebeck, less often to Danzig, from where the emigrants were to receive free transportation to Russia by sea. (p.44)" Here they were housed either in newly constructed, probably poorly constructed, barracks or in rented space like old warehouses.
"To maintain a semblance of order ... the [Russian] emigration agents appointed leaders from ... among the recruited colonists, calling them ... by whatever title a mayor in their home area was known, each having authority over an assigned number of emigrants ... Many of these supervisors, after arrival on the settlement sites, became the first overseers of the new colonies, which were then called by their [family] names, which were thus perpetuated (pp.44-45)."
"Before embarkation at the seaport city, each foreigner recruited for emigration to Russia received a gift ... with which each ... could buy ... some food supplies ... [and] clothing ... (p.45)."
"The ships on which the emigrants made the sea voyage on the Baltic were Hanseatic or English. Usually it took them 9 to 11 days to travel from Luebeck to Kronstadt, but [due to bad weather or crooked captains selling the colonists high priced food] ... it sometimes took six weeks (p.45)."
After their arrival in Kronstadt [the huge Russian naval base on an island off St. Petersburg where Russian customs operations were centered], the colonists left the ships and for a short time, until their departure to Oranienbaum, some of them were quartered in houses, others had to camp a day or more ... out in the open. Those families with sick members were taken to the city [St. Petersburg] until their recovery (p.46)."
During those years and for our people, Russia's "Ellis Island" was a place called Oranienbaum. Click on it to continue the story.