Johann Heinrich Hector Völck, son of Johann Magnus Völck & Helena Maria Raab, was baptized 30 October 1712 in a small village near Staufenberg named Lollar – north of Giessen. On 28 February 1737 he married in Staufenberg to Catharina Decker. She had been baptized there on 13 March 1712. He was a tailor, and served terms as a civil servant, counter clerk and town controller.
Johann Heinrich & Catharina have 6 known children, each born in Staufenberg: (1) Eleonora Maria Elisabetha, born 10 January 1738; (2) Anna Catharina, born 7 March 1741; (3) Agnesa Magdalena, born 30 March 1745; (4) Friedrich Heinrich, born 17 June 1748; (5) Eleonora Juliana Jacobina Henrietta, born 7 April 1753; & (6) Christina Johanetta Margretha, born 24 July 1756.
Johann Heinrich Völck, a farmer, his wife Katharina and children (Friedrich, age 18; Julianna, age 14; and Henrietta, age 13) arrived from Lübeck at the port of 12 September 1766 aboard the English frigate Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax. They were traveling with their daughter Agnessa Magdalena (above) who was married to Johann Heinrich Becker.
Joh. Heinrich Völck, his wife Juliane, and children (Joh. Friedrich, age 18; Juliana, age 14; Henrietta, age 12) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that both parents died en route.
Friedrich and Henrietta along with Friedrich's new wife Elisabeth Hasselbach arrived in Paulskaya on 3 August 1767. They are recorded on the 1767 Census in the appendix of colonists who were wintering in the colony of Paulskaya in Household No. 3. The Völks settled finally in Kind.
Friedrich's youngest sister (recorded as Henrietta) was also living with them in 1767. She married in 1773 to Baltasar Schäfer of Basel.
Friedrich's sister Agnes Magdalena married Johann Heinrich Becker who had also come from Staufenberg, and their other sister (Juliana) is living with them in Ernestinendorf in Household No. 31 on the 1767 Census. [Agnes is recorded as "Elisabeth" on the transport list from St. Petersburg to Saratov and as "Louisa" on the 1767 census, but these are believed to be mis-translations.]
Later generations of this family also use the spelling of "Falk" in North America.
- 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): Kd07.
- Müller, Hanno. Die Familienbücher des Kirchspiels Kirchberg.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 403.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 352.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5329.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #2878-2884.
Hanno Müller
Bill Pickelhaupt
Brent Mai