Christian Span from Oberissigheim & Anna Catharina Lochmann from Himbach were married on 7 October 1761. The baptisms of two of their children, both born in Himbach, are recorded in the Eckartshausen parish register: (1) Johann Heinrich, born 30 October 1762; and (2) Catharina Ferdinanda, born 1 July 1765.
Christian Spahn, a farmer, his wife Katharina, and children (Johann Heinrich, age 4; Katharina, age 1½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 August 1766 aboard the pink Slon under the command of Lieutenant Sergey Panov.
Only son Johann Heinrich (age 4) survived to settle in the Volga German colony of Norka on 15 August 1767. He is recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 53, living with the Wilhelm Würtz family. The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Spahn and Würtz families, although both came from the Eckartshausen parish and the wife of Wilhelm Würtz was Anna Maria Lochmann.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Christian Spahn came from the German district of Isenburg.
- 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): Nr128.
- Parish records of Eckartshausen (including Langen-Bergheim, Wiedermus, Ronneburg, and Himbach) - LDS Films #1201827 and #1201828.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 243.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #4003.
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai