Johannes Kestle, a farmer, his wife Anna Maria Scheible, and two unnamed children immigrated to Schleswig-Holstein (Denmark) arriving in Flensburg on 3 April 1762. They deserted the Danish colonies on 25 May 1765 and immigrated to Russia.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Dönhof on 21 July 1766. Johannes, his new wife Anna Maria (widow of Heinrich Lange), daughter Sophia Dorothea (age 1), and step-daughter Anna Margaretha Lange (age 9) are recorded on the 1767 census of Dönhof in Household No. 44.
Both the Eichhorns and the 1767 census record that Johannes Kestle came from the German area of Württemberg.
There do not appear to be any surviving male descendants of this family among the Volga German colonies.
- Eichhorn, Alexander, Jacob & Mary Eichhorn. The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Drukerei und Verlag Steinmeier GmbH & Co. Kg, 2012): B-460.
- 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): Br49, Dh071.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 353.
Brent Mai
Pre-Volga Origin
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Volga Colonies
Immigration Locations
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