Johann Peter Beefuß and Anna Elisabetha Kraft were married on 25 January 1753 in Storndorf. The births of three of their children have been located in the parish register of Storndorf: (1) Anna Julianna, born 6 December 1753; (2) Johann Adam, born 9 January 1757; and (3) Johann Andreas, born 24 May 1761.
Peter Befus, a farmer, his wife Anna Elisabeth, and children (Julianna, age 15; Johann Adam, age 11; Justus [sic], age 9] arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 September 1766 aboard the snow-brig Die Frau Dietrika under the command of Skipper Joachim Friedrich Luhn.
Peter Befus died after arriving in Russia, and his widow remarried to Johann Konrad Ruhl. She and the surviving children settled in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana on 16 September 1767. The children (Julianna, age 16; Johann Adam, age 13; Justus [sic], age 11) are recorded on the 1767 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. 52.
Julianna Befus, wife of Nikolaus Hergert, is recorded on the 1798 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. Yp25.
Adam Befus and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. Yp54.
Justus Befus has not been located on the 1798 census, but is recorded as August Befus on the 1834 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. 282 along with a note that he had died in 1827.
Philipp Befus and Konrad Befus from Yagodnaya Polyana and their families are recorded on the 1857 census of Neu-Yagodnaya-Polyana.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that Peter Befus came from the German region of Darmstadt. Karl Stumpp records that the Befus family came from Storndorf.
- 1834 Yagodnaya Polyana Census (Households No. 2, 21, 32, 42, 86, 87, 115, 140, 149, 249, 256, 282).
- 1857 Neu-Yagodnaya-Polyana Census.
- 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): Yp25, Yp54.
- Parish records of Storndorf.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 187.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6101.
- Stumpp, Karl. The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862 (Lincoln, NE: The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1973?): 120.
Maggie Hein
Karl Stumpp
Brent Mai
Entry from the Oranienbaum passenger list recording the arrival in Russia of Peter Befus (No. 6101) and his family.
Source: Brent Mai.