Johann Best, a miller (Müller), his wife Anna, and daughter (Maria, age 18; Anna, age 16¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 2 August 1766 aboard an English frigate named Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax.
Johannes Best, a farmer, and his wife Anna are recorded on an appendix the 1767 census of Paulskaya in Household No. 99 along with a note that they settled in the colony of Schönchen in 1768.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Best came from the German region of Darmstadt. The 1767 census records that Johannes Best came from the German village of Fürth in the Darmstadt region.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Best 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): 679.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 370.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5384.
Brent Mai