Zacharius Schönheiter, a farmer, his wife Ursula, and children (Maria, age 16; Franziscus, age 11; Franzisca, age 6) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard the galliot named Elisabeth Catharina under the command of Skipper Heinrich Ludwig Gottknecht.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Seelmann on 16 August 1767 and is recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 37.
Ludwig Schönheiter is recorded on the 1798 census of Preuss in Household No. Ps15 along with a note that he is working in Seelmann
Ludwig Schönheiter is recorded on the 1811 census of Preuss in Household No. 14 along with a note that he relocated to the colony of Neu-Kolonie [year not recorded].
Ludwig Schönheiter from Preuss and his son are recorded on the 1811 census of Neu-Kolonie in Household No. 3 along with a note that Ludwig had arrived in Neu-Kolonie from Preuss in 1798.
Ludwig Schönheiter and his family are recorded on the 1834 census of Neu-Kolonie in Household No. 4.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Zacharius Schönheiter came from the German region of Schwaben (Swabia). The 1767 census records that he came from the German village of Epsong in the district of Schwaben (Swabia).
- 1811 Neu-Kolonie Census (Household No. 3).
- 1811 Preuss Census (Household No. 14).
- 1834 Neu-Kolonie Census (Household No. 4).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 32.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 398.
- 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): Ps15.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 156.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3056.
Brent Mai