Johann Valentin Mayer, son of Johann Mayer & Anna Maria Sigler, was born 8 September 1701 in Pfaffenhofen (southeast of Heidelberg and currently in Baden-Württemberg). He married there on 28 November 1724 to Anna Margaretha Reoth, daughter of Christian Reoth. She died there on 18 January 1763.
Their son Johannes was born in Pfaffenhofen 11 December 1733 and baptized the same day. He married in Sulzfeld on 24 March 1761 to Anna Salome Beisel, daughter of Friedrich Jakob Beisel and Anna Salome Völke, who was born in Sulzfeld on 25 March 1738.
Valentin and his son immigrated to Schleswig-Holstein (Denmark) and settled in the colony of Friedrichsambau. They are recorded as having deserted this colony on 27 June 1764. They immigrated to Dreispitz, arriving there on 16 September 1766. Valentin is listed on the 1767 Census of Dreispitz in Household No. 25. Son Johannes and his family are recorded there in Household No. 14.
- Eichhorn, Alexander. The immigration of German colonists to Denmark and their subsequent emigration to Russia in the years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Steinmeier, 2012): 515.
- Lang, Gerhard. German Colonists of Denmark on the Volga.
- 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): Dr20, Dr31.
- Parish records of Pfaffenhofen (LDS Film No. 1184783)
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 375, 377.
Gerhard Lang
Brent Mai