Johann Balzer, a tailor, his wife Anna, and children (Andreas, age 21; Anna, age 18; Elisabeth, age 14; Johann, age 5¼) 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 Households No. 20 & 58.
They are recorded on the 1775 census of Grimm in Household No. 134.
The 1798 census of Stephan records Johannes Balzer from Grimm in Household No. Sp34.
Heinrich Balzer from Stephan and his family are recorded on the 1857 census of Oberdorf in Household No. 17.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that Johann Balzer came from the German region of Darmstadt.
- 1775 Grimm Census (Household No. 134).
- 1857 Oberdorf Census (Household No. 17).
- 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): 323.
- 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): Gm111, Sp34.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 76, 81.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2393.
Brent Mai