Sebastian Bechtold, son of Sebastian Bechtold, married on 25 November 1733 to Anna Maria Lissman, daughter of Johann Georg Lissman. Among their many children, all born in Fischborn, is Johann Georg Bechtold who was baptized on 3 March 1742.
Johann Georg Bechthold, a single carpenter, arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 August 1766 aboard the Russian galliot Strelna under the command of Lieutenant Sornev.
He and his new wife settled in the Volga German colony of Norka on 15 August 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 96.
On the 1775 census of Norka (Household No. 127), he is married to Sophia (age 29) who apparently has an illegitimate son, Lorenz Imhoff. The other two children recorded as also being step-children (Johann Adam & Charlotte) are actually Georg Bechthold's children by his first wife.
In 1795, Johann Adam Bechthold moved from Norka to Dönhof.
The Philipp Bechthold family moved from Neu-Dönhof to Kolb before 1900.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that Johann Georg Bechthold came from the German region of Isenburg.
-1775 Census of Norka (No. 127).
- 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): Dh088, Nr134.
- Parish register of Fischborn.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 254.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #4953.
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai