Odessa Vacations

Where in Germany did the Germans that lived in Odessa, Ukraine come from?

My family comes from Odessa (Russia) now the Ukraine. I was trying to find out for the longest time, but with no luck. They were Roman Catholic Germans who immigrated to Odessa in the early 1800s. Just wondering if anyone knows. Rude or smart@ss comments will be reported.

Public Comments

1. They were invited to settle there, they came from all over Germany. In both Russia and the Ukraine they invited German workers to come live and work there. They needed the qualified and professional Germans to help them build and improve their cities. They had entire parts of cities like Moscow to themselves. Your ancestors seem to have been "Black sea Germans" and probably came from West Prussia, Western or Southwestern Germany.
2. Greetings from Germany Are you sure with the early 1800s? That would be unusual, the Napoleonic Wars lasted until 1815, i don´t think that there was much emigration to Russia in these years. During the Restoration after 1815 there were strict controls of all kind. Most people emigrated to America not Russia. But a lot of Germans settled in Russia around 1763-67, they were invited by Catherine the Great, who wished to develop her country. They came from the southgerman states ( Bavaria, Hesse, Baden etc.). The population in these states is mostly catholic. The population in the north of Germany is protestant. The name of the family could prove fruitful, german family-names are often specific to regions. I remember vaguely that many immigrants to Russia came from Schwaben (Wuertemberg, southwestern corner of Germany), but no guarantee.