[Joseph] Jacob Benz, a farmer, his wife Anna, and children (Johannes, age 5; Anna, age 2) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 16 August 1766 aboard a galliot named Die Wachsamkeit under the command of Skipper Jacob Heinrich Sager.
Joseph Jakob Benz, a farmer, his wife Anna Margaretha, and son Johannes (age 6) are recorded on the 1767 census of Lauwe in Household No. 20. They had arrived in Lauwe on 5 September 1767.
In 1788, Johannes Benz moved from Lauwe to Brabander.
Johannes Benz from Lauwe and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Brabander in Household No. Bn41.
Johannes Benz and his sons (Heinrich, age 22; Johannes, age 19) are recorded on the 1811 census of Brabander in Household No. 77.
Johannes Benz must have died between 1811 and 1816. Son Heinrich Benz and his family are recorded on the 1834 census Brabander in Household No. 32. Son Johannes Benz and his family are recorded on the 1834 census of Brabander in Household No. 41.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Jacob Benz came from the German region of Württemberg while the 1767 census records that he came from the village of Aungin? in Luxembourg.
[There are some publications that have erroneously translated this surname as Beltz.]
- 1811 Brabander Census (Household No. 77).
- 1834 Brabander Census (Households No. 32, 41).
- 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): Bn41, Mv1517.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 41.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6151.
Brent Mai