Johann Philip Rahn, son of Martin Rahn & Elisabetha Müller, was born 25 October 1717 in Sellnrod and baptized there on 29 October 1717. Anna Elisabetha Dietz, daughter of Johann Peter Dietz & Elisabetha Catharina Schneidmüller, was born 9 June 1719 in Sellnrod and baptized there on 11 June 1719.
Johann Philip Rahn & Anna Elisabetha Dietz were married in Sellnrod on 30 January 1742. The births of 7 of their children are recorded in the parish register of Sellnrod: (1) Johann Peter, born 17 November 1742, baptized 19 November 1742; (2) Johann Jacob, born 20 August 1744, baptized 21 August 1744; (3) Johann Henrich, born 12 July 1746, baptized 13 July 1746; (4) Johann Conrad, born 30 December 1748, baptized 1 January 1749, died 12 September 1757; (5) Johann Henrich, born 1 May 1751, baptized 16 May 1751, died 11 September 1757; (6) Johannes, born 1 October 1757, baptized 2 October 1757; and (7) Johann Heinrich, born 16 October 1760, baptized 17 October 1760.
Johann Philipp Rohn, a farmer, his wife, Anna Elisabeth, and children (Johann Peter [age not recorded]; Johann Jakob [age not recorded]; Johann Heinrich [age not recorded]; Johann Konrad, age 20; Johann, age 10; Johann Heinrich, age 8) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 September 1766 aboard the galliot Johannes under the command of Skipper Stahl.
Johann Philipp Rohn, a farmer, his wife Anna, and children (Johann Peter, age 22; Jakob, age 20; Konrad, age 19; Johannes, age 10½, Heinrich, age 8) are recorded on the 1767 census of Walter in Household No. 67. They had settled in Walter on 25 August 1767.
Johann Heinrich Rahn (age 21), [third son of the above referenced Johann Philipp Rohn], is recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 among a group of colonists that settled in Yagodnaya Polyana.
Johann Heinrich Rahn and his [new] wife Anna Elisabeth are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 78. They settled in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana on 16 September 1767.
Heinrich Rohn and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. Yp36.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Philipp Rohn came from the German region of Darmstadt. The 1767 census records that Philipp Rohn came from the German village of Zell-Romrod [sic] in the Hessen-Darmstadt area.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Rahn was a blacksmith from the German region of Darmstadt. The 1767 census records that Johann Heinrich Rahn was a farmer from the German village of Nidda. Research by Georg Kromm related to the original settlers of the colony of Yagodnaya Polyana reports that Heinrich Rohn came from the German village of Sellnrod in the Nidda region.
The surname is generally spelled “Rohn” in later records.
- Kromm, Georg. “Research in Hesse,” Work Paper of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 13 (December, 1973).
- 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): Wt082, Wt084, Wt109, Wt120, Yp36.
- Parish records of Sellnrod (LDS Film No. 1201577).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 193.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 310.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6370, #6371, #6372, #6373.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #8073.
- Stahnke, Günter, ed. Ortsfamilienbuch Sellnrod [Online].
Maggie Hein
Jean Roth
Brent Mai