Widower Johannes Kurtz, a tailor, and his children (Dorothea, age 22; Anna [Barbara], age 20; Johann, age 18; Johannes, age 16; Elisabeth, age 12; Konrad, age 10; Heinrich, age 8) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard a galliot named Kronstadt under the command of Lieutenant Samuel Gibbs.
It is believed that another son, Georg had arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard the ship Der Junge Mathias under the command of Skipper David Wollert.
The Kurtz family settled in the Volga German colony of Dönhof on 18 June 1767. This son Georg (age 23), his wife Petronella, and Georg's siblings (Johannes, age 18; Johannes, age 16; Elisabeth, age 13; Konrad, age 12; Johann Heinich, age 10) are recorded on the 1767 census of Dönhof in Household No. 69.
An [Anna] Barbara Kurtz, believed to be the older sister, is recorded on the 1798 census of Balzer in Household No. Bz003.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that this Kurtz family came from the German region of Riedesel.
- 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): 377.
- 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): Bz003, Dh049.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 360.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766 (Saratov: State Technical University, 2010): #1930, #2869.
Brent Mai