Johann Nicolaus Oldt/Olt was born 21 May 1736 in Wüzberg and by occupation was a master weaver. He and Anna Catharina (Öhlmann) of Rimhorn where in 1764 he took over several properties from his father-in-law, which he then sold in 1766 for 241 guiders and 47 kreuzer to cover his debts, in order to be able to emigrate to Russia. Because of a large gap in the Rimhorn wedding register, there is no existing record of their wedding.
A baptism entry for their daughter Anna Eva born 5 May 1765 has note in the margin: left for Russia.
Nikolaus Old [sic], a farmer, his wife Katharina, and daughter (Anna Eva, age 2) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 18 August 1766 aboard the galliot named Die Perle (The Pearl) under the command of Skipper Gerhardt Hermann Thomsen.
Johann Nikolaus Olt [sic], his wife Katharina, and daughter Maria Elisabeth (age ½) are recorded on the 1767 census of Frank in Household No. 93. They had arrived in Frank on 1 September 1767.
Nikolaus and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Frank in Household No. Fk056.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Nikolaus Old [sic] came from the German region of Friedberg.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Alt family among the Volga German colonies.
- Gieg, Ella. Auswanderungen aus dem Odenwaldkreis Band 1 (Lützelbach: E. Gieg, 1988-1997): 176.
- Gieg, Ella. "Neue Erkenntnisse zur Auswanderung nach Russland 1766."
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 784.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Fk056, Fk083.
- Parish register of Höchst (LDS Film Nos. 1193268 & 1193269).
- Parish register of Michelstadt (LDS Films #1347021 & 1347002).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 434.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6270.
Bill Pickelhaupt
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai