The Aqua family moved from Italy to Germany before 1750 and settled in the village of Hattersheim, today part of metropolitan Frankfurt directly across the Main River (northwest) from the Frankfurt Airport.
Giovanni Pietro Dell'Acqua [Johannes Peter Aqua], son of Giuseppe Antonio Dell'Acqua [Joseph Anton Aqua] & Petrolilla Zanoni, was born 28 November 1726 and baptized on 29 November 1726 in Codogno, Italy. [Giuseppe Antonio Dell-Acqua was born about 1685 and died 30 December 1734 in Codogno.]
Johannes Peter Aqua moved to Hattersheim where he married on 12 October 1750 in the Catholic Church of the neighboring village of Hochheim to Maria Anna Weninger, daughter of Johann Georg Weninger & Maria Elisabetha Keim. Maria Anna had been born 8 April 1724 and baptized in the same church. They had a number of children, all baptized in this same church, including: (1) Apollonia, born 27 June 1751 & baptized 28 June 1751; (2) Johann Baptist, born & baptized on 24 June 1753; (3) Andreas Anton, born 17 June 1756, died 21 April 1757; (4) Karl, born 30 August 1758, died 18 September 1758; and (5) Elisabetha, born 24 September 1763, died 20 February 1764.
Johann Aqua, a merchant (Kaufmann), his wife Marianna, and children (Maria Appolonia, age 21; Johann Baptist, age 20) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 August 1766 aboard a galliot named Diana under the command of Skipper Markus Draguhn.
They arrived in the Volga German colony of Keller on 5 September 1767 where they are recorded on the 1767 Census in Household No. 64.
In 1774, Keller was destroyed by attacks from the nomadic peoples of the area, and the Aqua family relocated to the newly-formed colony of Neu-Kolonie.
Aqua descendants are recorded there on the 1798 census of Neu-Kolonie in Households No. Nk27 & Nk45.
Georg Aqua and his family are recorded on the 1811 census of Neu-Kolonie in Household No. 25.
The family name has many spellings throughout the centuries and across the continents: Aqua, Acqua, Aqwa, Akwa, Akva.
- 1811 Neu-Kolonie Census (Household No. 25).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 33.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 709-710.
- 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): Nk27, Nk45.
- Parish register of the Church of St. Biagio & the Immaculate Conception of Mary in Codogno (Italy).
- Parish register of Hochheim (LDS Film No. 1270321).
- Parish register of Hattersheim (LDS Film No. 1270177).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 355.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5671.
João Vicente Akwa
Irma Sabelfeld
Brent Mai
Entry in the parish register of the Church of St. Biagio & the Immaculate Conseption of Mary in Codogno recording the baptism of Johannes Peter Aqua on 29 November 1726 (bottom of the page).
Source: João Vicente Akwa.
Baptismal register of the Church of St. Biagio & the Immaculate Conseption of Mary in Codogno.
Source: João Vicente Akwa.
Entry from the 1798 census of Neu-Kolonie recording the widow and children of Johannes Aqua.
Source: Irma Sabelfeld.