The descendants of three Stellwagen families from the German village of Sprendlingen immigrated to Russia. Their relationship to each other, if any, requires additional research.
They all arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard a ship named Die Perle under the command of Skipper Gerhardt Hermann Thomsen.
(1) Susanna Elisabetha Stellwagen, illegitimate daughter of Johannes & Maria Veronica Stellwagen, was born 13 January 1752 in Sprendlingen.
Widow Veronika Stellwagen and her daughter Anna (age 16) arrived in Oranienbaum.
Susanna Elisabeth is recorded on the 1767 census of Kolb as an orphan in Household No. 22 along with the Jacob Müller family. The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Müller and Stellwagen families. She is recorded on the 1798 census of Kolb in Household No. Ko23 as the wife of Johann Adam Koch [surname recorded as Stehlbach].
(2) Lorenz & Catharina Elisabeth Stellwagen has 8 children whose births are recorded in the Sprendlingen parish records: (1) Johann Adam, born 21 August 1746; (2) Gertrude, b. 28 July 1748; (3) Johannes, born 12 September 1750; (4) Johann Jacob, born in Jan 1753; (5) Johannes, born 17 May 1755; (6) Johann Heinrich, born 7 August 1757; (7) Johann Phillip, born 16 September 1759; and (8) Johann Peter, born 14 March 1762.
Lorenz Stellwagen, a farmer, his wife Katharina, and children (Gertrude, age 20; Lorenz, age 18; Jakob, age 16½; Johann, age 14; Heinrich, age 12; Philipp, age 9; Maria, age 2) arrived in Oranienbaum.
Johannes Stellwagen (age 12) are recorded on the 1767 census of Moor in Household No. 17 along with his step-father Konrad Bichert and his family. They had arrived in Moor on 15 January 1767. [See Bichert Family.]
(3) Anna Gertruda Stellwagen, daughter of Adam & Anna Barbara Stellwagen, was born 17 May 1728 in Sprendlingen. She married 9 February 1751 in Sprendlingen to Philipp Bamberger. Anna Gertruda died on 11 March 1763 in Sprendlingen.
Philipp Bamberger, a farmer, his [new] wife Katharina, and children (Philipp, age 17; Kunigunda, age 15; Konrad, age 13; Maria, age 10; Katharina, age 7; Friedrich, age 3) arrived in Oranienbaum. [See Bamberger Family.]
Three of her children survived the trip to Russia and are recorded on the 1767 census of Moor in Household No. 18 where they are recorded as the stepchildren of Nicolaus Scherf.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that each of these families came from the German region of Pfalz.
There do not appear to be any surviving male Stellwagen descendants among the Volga German colonies.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 29.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 157-159.
- 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): Ko23.
- Parish register of Sprendlingen.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 391.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 160.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #989, #999, #1000.
Maggie Hein
Wayne Bonner
Brent Mai