Johann Biersack, a a hosier (Strumpfwirker), his wife Susanna [widow Theirauch], and his brother Philipp (age 23) arrived from Lübeck via Reval [Estonia] at the port of Oranienbaum on 24 May 1766 aboard the pink named Лапоминк (Lapomink) under the command of Lieutenant Dmitry Krykov.
Johannes Birsack (age 28), a farmer, his wife Susanna, and daughter Appolonia (age ½) are recorded on the 1767 census of Keller in Household No. 58. They had arrived in Keller on 12 May 1767.
Philipp Birsack (age 23), a single hosier (Strumpfwirker), is recorded on the 1767 census of Keller in Household No. 72 along with a note that he is working as a day-laborer (Lohnarbeiter) for Dietrich Ulrich. He has also arrived in Keller on 12 May 1767.
Following the destruction of Keller, the Birsack family resettled to the colony of Neu-Kolonie.
Johannes Biersack and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Neu-Kolonie in Household No. Nk17.
The death of Johannes Biersack (age 65) of Neu-Kolonie is recorded on 31 January 1808 in the parish register of Preuss.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that the Birsack brothers came from the German region of Mainz. The 1767 census records that both of these men came from the German village of Oberursel in Kurmainz.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Biersack family 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): 92.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Nk17.
- Parish register of Preuss.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 354, 357.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766 (Saratov: State Technical University, 2010): #406.
Brent Mai
Entry from the Oranienbaum passenger list recording the arrival in Russia of Johann Biersack, his wife, and his brother.
Source: Brent Mai