Bi(e)sterfeld(t)
Christian Bisterfeld, a carpenter (Zimmerman), his wife Anna, and children (Jakob, age 9; Anna, age 7; Just, age 4) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 12 September 1766 aboard en English frigate Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax.
Johann Christian Bisterfeld, his wife Anna Margaretha (died en route), and children (Johann Jacob, age 9; Christina Margaretha, age 7; Just, age 5) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Nieder-Monjou on 28 June 1767. Christian, his surviving children, his new wife Elisabeth, and her children (Martin Schäfer, age 15, and Cecelia Schäfer, age 10) are recorded on the 1767 census of Nieder-Monjou in Household No. 59.
Son Jakob Bisterfeld from Nieder-Monjou is recorded on the 1798 census of Schwed in Household No. Sw19. Jakob's daughter from a previous marriage to the unnamed deceased daughter of Philipp Ehrlenbach is recorded on the 1798 census of Paulskaya in Household No. Pl30.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that Christian Bisterfeld came from the German village of Runkel.
- 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): Nm10, Pl30, Sw19.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 198.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5383.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #6899-6903.
Brent Mai