Johann Jacob Best [sic], son of Hasnss Jacob & Maria Barbara Best, was born 18 May 1724 in Ochsenbach, Württemberg.
He married Maria Magdalena Henne, daughter of Johann Henne, on 5 November 1748 in Ochsenbach. Anna Christina (baptized Christina Barbara) was born 12 December 1760 in Ochsenbach.
Johann Betz, a farmer, his wife Magdalena, and children (Christina, age 5; Julianna, age 1½) arrived from Reval [Estonia] at the port of Oranienbaum on 31 May 1766 aboard the pink Slon under the command of Lieutenant Sergey Panov.
Jakob Betz, a craftsman (Handwerker), Magdalena, and daughter Christina (age 6½) are recorded on the 1767 census of Frank in Household No. 20. They had settled in Frank in 1767.
Widower Jakob Betz is recorded on the 1798 census of Frank in Household No. Fk043.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Betz came from the German region of Württemberg. The 1767 census records that he came from the German village of Ochsenbach in the Württemberg region.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Betz family among the Volga German colonies.
- 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): Fk043.
- Parish records of Ochsenbach (LDS Film #1184602).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 422.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #556.
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai