Johann Valentin Thorn was born on 26 April 1733 in Falkenstein.
Johann Valentin Thorn, a farmer, his wife Elisabeth, and children (Margaretha, age 6; Johann [Jakob], are 3; Maria, age ½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 18 June 1766 aboard the ship Die Perle under the command of Skipper Thomson.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Kolb on 13 May 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 3.
Heinrich Jakob Dorn (age 36) is recorded on the 1798 census of Walter in Household No. Wt076. He is believed to be the 3-year-old Jakob who arrived in Oranienbaum.
Descendants of this family also moved to the colony of Frank.
This surname is also spelled as Dorn in some records.
- 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): Ko31, Wt076.
- Parish records of Sankt Alban, Rockenhausen, Central Archive of the Evangelical Church in Pfalz (Archion.de)
- Parish records of Sankt Alban (LDS Film #193160)
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 386.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #985.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #0424.
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai