Jacob Gräf married Anna Eva Baslern, daughter of Caspar & Anna Margaretha Baslern, on 10 January 1752 in the Evangelical Church of Spöck, today a borough of Karlsruhe city. Anna Eva had been baptized on 26 May 1729 in the same church.
They had four known children, each baptized in Spöck: (1) Eva Catharina, on 11 November 1752; (2) Jacob, on 10 May 1754; (3) Catharina Margaretha, on 22 July 1756; and (4) Martin, 21 April 1759.
Jacob Gräf and his family emigrated to Denmark. They departed from Altona, Duchy of Holstein, on 5 May 1761 under the leadership of Johann Andreas Kirchhof, and arrived in the city of Schleswig, Duchy of Schleswig, on 9 May 1761. They remained in Denmark until July 1763.
They immigrated to Russia and settled in the Volga German colony of Schilling. Jakob died and his widow Eva remarried to Johann Georg Geist. The combined Graf/Geist family is recorded on the 1775 census of Schilling in Household No. 48. Son Martin is recorded on the 1798 Census of Schilling in Household No. Sg001.
- 1775 Census of Schilling (No. 48).
- Eichhorn, Alexander. The immigration of German colonists to Denmark and their subsequent emigration to Russia in the years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Steinmeier, 2012): 256 & 422/23.
- 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)
- Parish records of Spöck (LDS Film No. 1238306).: Sg001.
Corina Hirt
Gary Martens
Brent Mai