Johann Ries, a farmer, his wife Anna, and children (Barbara [Katharina], age 14; Johann, age 7) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard the barque named Fortitudo under the command of Skipper John Scott.
Johannes Riess [sic] and his children (Barbara Catrina, age 14; Johannes, age 7) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that father Johannes Riess died en route.
Orphan Barbara Katharina Ries is recorded on the 1767 census of Müller in Household No. 10 along with the Konrad Klein family. The 1767 census does not record a relationship between the Ries and Klein families.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that this Ries family came from the German region of Darmstadt.
There do not appear to be any surviving male descendant lines of this Ries family among the Volga German colonies.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 177.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3629.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #1962-1964.
Brent Mai