Wolff Friedrich Frantz, was born 17 January 1672. He married Elisabetha Magdalena Engert who had been born 22 October 1689.
Their son Johann Matthäus Frantz was born 21 September 1729 in Rossdorf bei Darmstadt and baptized there on 25 September 1729. He married in Rossdorf on 12 February 1756 to Anna Catharina Foss, daughter of Johann Melchior Foss, a day laborer on the Hartenau farm.
In Rossdorf, Johann Matthäus Frantz is recorded as
"Tambour v. d. Herrn Captains Horsten Compagnie d. Grenadiergarde Bataillons Pirmasens. Sr. Hochfuerstl. Hn. Erbprinz zu Darmstadt zu Fuss"
[a drummer with Capt. Horst's Company of the Grenadier Guard Battalion from Pirmasens stationed with the Darmstadt Infantry belonging to His Majesty, the Crown Prince]
The births of seven children to Johann Matthäus Frantz & Anna Catharina Foss are recorded in Rossdorf: (1) Catharina Elisabetha, born 15 August 1756; (2) Ludwig, born 20 November 1757; (3) Johann Jacob Ludwig, born 5 September 1759, died 25 March 1764; (4) Anna Gertrauda, born 1 October 1761; (5) Eliesabetha Margaretha, born 30 December 1762, died 25 March 1766; (6) Bernhard, born 14 March 1764; (7) Johann Valentin, born 27 September 1765.
They arrived in Laub on 12 July 1767 with only one child, the oldest daughter. The couple is recorded on the 1798 census of Laub in Household No. Lb42.
- Franze-Merlau, Christel. Familienbuch Rossdorf bei Darmstadt (Darmstadt: Deutsche Ortssippenbücher, 2004): 178.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga Vol. 1 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Lb42.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 22.
Brent Mai