Johann Baltzer [sic] Rau, son of Johannes Rau & Anna Catharina Keil, was born in Nieder-Ohmen on 22 March 1732, baptized there on 24 March 1732, and confirmed there on 5 June 1746.
He married in Nieder-Ohmen on 18 July 1755 to Maria Henckel, daughter of Johann Adam Henckel & Ctharina Margaretha Kißner.
The baptisms of the following children born to Johann Balthasar Rau & Maria Henckel are recorded in the parish register of Nieder-Ohmen: (1) Caspar, born & baptized 8 November 1755, died 26 July 1756, buried 27 July 1756; (2) Anna Margaretha, born 9 June 1757, baptized 10 June 1757; (3) Juliana, born 24 February 1760, baptized 26 February 1760; and (4) Johann Henrich [sic], born 3 February 1763, baptized 4 February 1763.
Balthasar Rau, a farmer, his wife Maria, and children (Anna, age 9; Julianna, age 6; Heinrich, age 4; Susanna, age 5-weeks) arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 17 July 1766 aboard a pink named Lev (Lion) under the command of Lieutenant Fyodor Fyodorov.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Grimm and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 12.
Balthasar is recorded on the 1775 census of Grimm in Household No. 94 along with his new wife Elisabeth and brother-in-law David Lutz and his wife Anna Margaretha.
Balthasar Rau and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Grimm in Household No. Gm035.
The death of Johann Philipp Rau, son of Balthasar Rau, in 1831 is recorded on the 1834 census of Grimm in Household No. 183.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that Balthasar Rau came from the German region of Darmstadt.
- 1775 Grimm Census (Household No. 94).
- 1834 Grimm Census (Household No. 183).
- Henkel, Hans. Ortsfamilienbuch Nieder-Ohmen. [Online]
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 31.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 325.
- 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): Gm035.
- Parish register of Nieder-Ohmen.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 75.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2411.
Brent Mai
V. Rau (via wolgadeutsche.net)