Zacharias Frieß, son of Johannes Frieß, was baptized in Groß-Felda on 12 October 1724. On 27 November 1749, he married in Groß-Felda to Anna Maria Fritz, daughter of Anna Margaretha Fritz from Feldkrücken.
The baptisms of seven children are recorded in the Groß-Felda parish register: (1) Anna Margaretha, born 5 July 1750, baptized 7 July 1750; (2) Johannes, baptized 26 February 1752, died as an infant; (3) Johann Hermann, born 3 April 1754, baptized 5 April 1754, died 30 June 1757; (4) Anna Maria, baptized 7 December 1756, died 24 July 1757; (5) Johann Wolf, baptized 4 June 1758; (6) Anna Christina, baptized 23 November 1760; and (7) Johannes, baptized 18 September 1763.
Zacharius Fries, a farmer, his wife Anna, and children (Anna Margaretha, age 20; Johann [Wolfgang], age 10; Johann[es], age 3½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 September 1766 aboard the galliot Johannes under the command of Skipper Stahl.
Zacharias Friess [sic], his wife Anna Maria, and children (Anna Margaretha, age 20; Joh. Wolfgang, age 10; Johannes, age 4; Jacob, born en route) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Wolfgang Fries is recorded on the 1798 census of Hussenbach in Household No. Hs119.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Zacharius Fries came from the German region of Darmstadt.
Another Fries family immigrated from Groß-Felda. Their relationship to each other, if any, needs further research.
Johannes Fries from [Groß-]Felda & Anna Maria Rausch from Repgeshein were married on 3 July 1766 in the Lutheran Church of Büdingen. [This Johannes Fries is believed to have died before reaching Russia, and Anna Maria Rausch was re-married to Johannes Schreiner because they settled in the colony of Hussenbach along with another Fries family from Groß-Felda.]
- 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): Hs119.
- Mai, Brent Alan, trans. & ed. Transport of the Volga Germans from Oranienbaum to the Colonies on the Volga: 1766-1767 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1998), p. A-59.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): #726.
- Parish register of Groß-Felda [Online].
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6382.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #7151-7156.
- Stumpp, Karl. The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the years 1763 to 1862 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1982): 129.
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai
Susan Hopp Nakaji