[Russian name: MAKAROVKA]
Saratov Province: Kamyshin District

MERKEL POPULATION STATISTICS:

YEAR PERSONS FAMILIES
1766 141 36
1769 115 30
1772 141
1778 166 26
1798 213 30
1816 361 41
1834 606 83
1834 1010 92
1834 1199 110
1860 1236 106

NOTE: From 1861-1879, 224 revision census individuals moved to the daughter colony of Friedenfeld, on the Wiesenseite. Declining population resulted from the migration along with a few families immigrating to America.

YEAR PERSONS FAMILIES
1881 1700 136
1886 1176 138
1891 1700
1894 1785 135
1897 2224
1904 2137
1910 2458
1912 2458
1926 1299

NOTE: decline from ravages of Great Famine (1921-1923) and resulting disease.

SOURCES FOR POPULATION CHART:

Beratz, Gottlieb, German Colonies on the Lower Volga, p. 351, 354, 361

Geisinger, Adam, The First Statistical Report on the Volga Colonies, dated February 14, 1769: Presented to Empress Catherine II by Count Orlov, the head of the Council appointed to supervise the settlement of foreigners in Russia. Found in the Russian Archives by Pisarevsky and published in his Studies on Foreign Colonization in Russia in the 18th Century, Moscow, 1909, appendix pp. 74-83. Work Paper #25, American Historical Society of Germans From Russia, 1972.

Griess, James Ruben, Those Who Came to Sutton, 1968, appendix page 151. Mai, Brent, translator: Description of the Saratov Colony of Makarovka [Merkel], from a description made for the Office of I mmigrant Oversight by the Fellow of the Supreme Court, Collegiate Assessor, and Cavalier Sixtel, October 9, 1798., American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. Minkh, A. N., Historical Geographic Dictionary of the Saratov Province: article: Makarovka [Merkel], 1890s. Sallet, Richard, Russian German Settlement in the United States, 1974, Appendix: German Settlement in the Volga Region, derived from Heimatbuch der Ostumsiedler Kalender, 1955, Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Ostumsiedler, Stuttgardt. Settlements in the 1897 Census, AHSGR Journal, Winter, 1990, p. 18.