Johannes Gräffenstein, his wife Elisabeth, and children (Anna Christina [sic], age 13; Johannes, age 10) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 26 August 1766 aboard a snow-brig named Die Jäger (The Hunter) under the command of Skipper Gabriel Will. [This entry from the Plehve translation of the Oranienbaum passenger list is recorded incorrectly.]
Johannes Greffenstein [sic] and his children (Anna Catharina [sic], age 13; Johannes, age 10) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Johannes Gräffenstein, a linen weaver (Leinenweber), his [new] wife Anna, and children (Anna, age 14; Johannes, age 12) are recorded on a list of Beauregard recruits (No. 3) appended to the 1767 census of the Volga German colonies.
Son Johannes (age 41) is recorded on the 1798 census of Zürich in Household No. Zr25.
The 1767 census records that Johannes Gräffenstein came from the German village of Germitsas [?].
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 859.
- 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): Zr25.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 349.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6977.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #8711-8713.
Brent Mai
Entry from the Oranienbaum passenger lists recording the family of Johannes Gräffenstein.
Source: Brent Mai.