Johann Heinrich Beck was born about 1735 in Ortenberg, northwest of Büdingen. His father was Johannes Beck, a forester in Heiken-Bergheim [Heckenbergheim?]. Heinrich married on 11 July 1758 to Anna Catharina Küster, daughter of Johann Christoph Küster and Catharina Elisabeth Rühl. She had been born in Ortenberg on 25 June 1739 and baptized 27 June 1739.
They had two children born/baptized in Ortenberg: (1) Anna Eva, born 16 June 1759, baptized 17 June 1759; and (2) Johanna Catharina, born 12 September 1762, baptized 16 September 1762.
The family left for Russia in 1766 with only daughter Eva, age 9, and arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard the galliott Die Fortuna with Peter Stahl as captain. They settled in the Volga German colony of Stahl am Karaman on 10 June 1767 where they are recorded on the 1767 Census in Household No. 19.
By the time that the 1798 Census was taken, daughter Anna Eva (age 41) was still living in Stahl am Karaman in Household No. Sk18 along with husband Daniel Krutsch and 5 children.
- Parish records of Ortenberg.
- 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): Sk18.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 196.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 161.
Bill Pickelhaupt
Maggie Hein
Pre-Volga Origin
Volga Colonies
Immigration Locations
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