Johann Bernhard Becker, son of Johann Baltzer Becker & Anna Catharina Schmidt, was born 25 February 1714 in Berghausen. He married Anna Maria. They had at least 9 children, each born in Berghausen: (1) Friedrich, born 4 June 1739; (2) Susanna, born 14 March 1742; (3) Johann Adam, born 1 November 1744; (4) David, born 7 April 1748; (5) Baltasar, born 17 July 1750; (6) Maria Catharina, born 28 January 1753; (7) Anna Elisabeth, born 30 May 1754; (8) Johann Jakob, born 14 February 1757; and (9) Johann Wilhelm, born 31 August 1759. The father, Johann Bernhard, died 5 February 1760 in Berghausen.
David Becker from Berghausen in the area of Gräfenstein & Anna Maria Steckenmeister from Allendorff in the area of Gräfenstein were married on 17 May 1766 in the City Lutheran Church of Friedberg.
Johann Adam Becker from Berghausen in the area of Gräfenstein & Charlotta Noll from Nieder Weisel were married on 17 May 1766 in the City Lutheran Church of Friedberg.
Widow Anna Maria Becker, her children (Susanna, age 24; Balzer, age 18; Elisabeth, age 12; Jakob, age 9; Wilhelm, age 7), David Becker & his wife Margaretha, and Adam Becker & his wife Charlotta arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 21 July 1766 aboard a koff named Alette under the command of Skipper Wybe Hendricks.
Widow Anna Maria Becker, her children (Susanna, age 25; Baltasar, age 19; Anna Elisabeth, age 14; Jacob, age 12; Johann Wilhelm, age 10), and David Becker and his wife Anna Margreta are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Kukkus on 26 June 1767.
Widow Anna Maria remarried to widower Johann Konrad Herbel and is recorded on the 1767 census of Kukkus in Household No. 27 along with their combined children. Three of the older Becker children are recorded in separate households: Johann Adam in Household No. 5; David in Household No. 31; and Balthasar in Household No. 37.
David Beck from Berghausen appears in documents of the Solms-Braunfels Archives requesting permission to depart for Russia in 1766.
- Griefenstein Ortsfamilienbuch.
- Kukkus Website (www.kukkus.com) - Origins
- 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): Kk14, Kk31, Kk34, Kk35, Kk43, Kk50.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): #344, #350.
- Parish records of Berghausen.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 464, 468, 469, & 470.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3550, #3551, #3554.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #2322-2329.
Rick Felsing
Brent Mai