Johann Friedrich Schmidt, a weaver (Tuchmacher), his wife Katharina Sophia, and son Christian (age 1¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 August 1766 aboard a galliot named Diana under the command of Skipper Markus Draguhn.
Widow Catrina Sophia Schmidt and her sons (Johann Christian, age 1¼; Joh. Fridr. Christian, born en route) are recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that son Johann Christian died en route.
It is not known in which colony the Widow Schmidt settled.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Friedrich Schmidt came from the German region of Prussia.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Schmidt family among the Volga German colonies.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 33.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 702.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5600.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #2240-2242.
Brent Mai