Andreas Schäfer, a farmer, his wife Elisabeth, and children (Johann, age 17½, Johannes, age 15; Katharina, age 13; Margaretha, age 10¼; Andreas, age 1¼) 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 Household No. 17.
The family is recorded on the 1775 census of Grimm in Household No. 13.
Both the Oranienbaum and the 1767 census record that Andreas Schäfer came from the German region of Darmstadt.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Schäfer family among the Volga German colonies.
- 1775 Grimm Census (Household No. 13).
- 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): 328.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 75.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2435.
Brent Mai