Christoph Bittenbender, a carpenter, his wife Anna, and children (Johann, age 19; Heinrich, age 11; Katharina, age 2¼; Georg, age ¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard the snow-brig named Maria Sophia under the command of Skipper Johann Bauert.
Christoph Biedenbinder [sic], his wife Anna Margaretha, and son Georg Heinrich (age ½) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Warenburg on 12 May 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 84.
The 1767 census records that Christoph Bittenbender came from the German village of Heim in the Darmstadt region.
There are no known surviving male lines of this family among the Volga German colonies.
- 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): 338.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 334.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2517.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #7958-7960.
Brent Mai