The births/baptisms of two sons of Johann Nicolaus Reuter & Susanna Elisabetha Engelmann are recorded in the parish register of Gemünden: (1) Johann Christoph Reuter, born 10 February 1740, baptized 11 February 1740; and (2) Christian, baptized 30 March 1742.
Johann Christoph married on 5 May 1760 to Maria Salome Illgas, daughter of Johann Nicolaus & Maria Elisabetha Illgas. She had been born on 30 January 1740, and baptized on 4 February 1740 in Gemünden. They had two children, each also baptized in the Evangelical Church of Gemünden: (1) Maria Susanna, baptized 22 November 1760; and (2) Johann Nicolaus, baptized 24 August 1763.
Johann Christoph Reuter, a farmer, his wife Maria, their children (Maria, age 6; Johann, age 3; Katharina, age 6-weeks), and his brother Christian Reuter (age 25) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 16 August 1766 aboard a snow-brig named Neptunus (Neptune) under the command of Skipper Johann Graap.
Christoph Reuter, his wife Maria, and children (Maria, age 5; Johann, age 3¼) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that daughter Maria died en route.
They arrived in the colony of Kautz on 21 August 1767 where they are recorded on the 1767 Census in Households No. 21 and 22.
On the 1798 census, Johann Christoph and his descendants are recorded in Kautz in Households No. Kz05 & Kz06. Brother Christian and his descendants are recorded in Households No. Kz10, Kz11, and Kz12.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 739.
- 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) Kz05, Kz06, Kz10, Kz11, Kz12.
- Parish register of Gemünden (LDS Film No. 493005).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 338.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5907.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #6390-6394.
Corina Hirt
Brent Mai