Maria Catharina Stallbaum, daughter of the deceased Gottfried Stallbaum, married on 22 April 1745 in Seegrehna to Johann Christian Schmidt from Gohrau, eldest son of Christian Schmidt. Maria Catharina had been born in 1722 in Seegrehna. They had a number of additional children including Dorothea Elisabeth who was born 7 July 1745 and baptized in nearby Rehsen.
The Schmidt family immigrated to Russia along with the family of Christian Stallbaum, presumed to be a relative of Maria Catharina. Christian, his wife, and their three children arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard an English barque named George under the command of Skipper Adam Bairnsfair.
Christi. Stallbaum, his wife Anna Maria, and children (August Willhelm, age 12; Maria Mariana, age 9; Joh. Christian, age 3; Christian, born en route) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that both parents and sons Joh. Christian and Christian died en route.
His surviving children settled in the Volga German colony of Boisroux on 7 June 1767. Son August Wilhelm is recorded on the 1767 census of Boisroux in Household No. 42 with the Gedde family. Daughter Maria Christina Stallbaum is recorded living in Household No. 28 with Dorothea Elisabeth, the eldest daughter of the aforementioned Schmidt family.
August Stahlbaum and his family are recorded on the 1834 census of Boisroux in Households No. 15 & 60.
Friedrich Stahlbaum and his family are recorded on an 1865 list of colonists resettling to Lilienfeld along with a note that they arrived in Lilienfeld from Boisroux on 30 March 1859.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Christian Stallbaum came from the German region of Zerbst.
- 1834 Boisroux Census (Households No. 15, 60).
- 1865 Lilienfeld List.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 30.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 205.
- 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): Bx07.
- Parish register of Seegrehna.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 146, 149.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1409.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #0779-0784.
- Schmidt, David F. "Using Russian and German Records to Research Your Family Back to Germany." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 40:1 (Spring 2017): 29-34.
David F. Schmidt
Brent Mai