Johann Gisau [sic], a farmer, his wife Sophia, and children (Justina, age 11; Heinrich, age 9; Christian, age 6) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard an English barque named George under the command of Skipper Adam Bairnsfair. His wife Sophia died and he remarried another Sophia.
Joh. Fried. Giesau, his wife Soph. Elisabet, and children (Catharina, age 10¼; Johann Christian, age 6) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Katharinenstadt on 7 June 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 2 with the children of their combined families.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Friedrich Gisou came from the German region of Zerbst while the 1767 census records that he came from the German region of Brandenburg.
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): 30.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 218.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 275.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1522.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #0857-0860.
Brent Mai