Christof Helfried Bott was born in Grünberg, Hessen, on 29 January 1729. His parents were Johann Daniel Bott (born 14 January 1696; died 1742) and Catharina Amalia [surname unknown].
Helfried, a weaver, his wife Christina and sons (Konrad, age 7; Johann Georg, age 5; Johann Konrad, age 2) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 7 May 1766 aboard the galliot named Anna Katharina under the command of Skipper Daniel Heyer.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Katharinenstadt on 5 March 1767, and the parents, son Johann Georg, and newborn daughter Anna Elisabeth are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 95.
Helfried Bott (age 46), his 2nd wife Henrietta née Mummert (widow Lerchner) (age 27), daughter Maria Charlotta (age 6), and step-daughter Maria Elisabeth Lechner (age 6) are recorded on the 1776 Katharinenstadt Grundbuch [Land Register] in Household No. 102 along with a note recording the births of two additional children (Christoph, born 16 July 1777; Anna Sophia, born 11 February 1779). The Land Register also records that step-daughter Maria Elisabeth Lechner is living in the colony of Paulskaya. [See Lechner Family.]
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1776 Katharinenstadt Land Register record that Helfried Bott came from the German village of Grünberg. The 1776 Katharinenstadt Land Register also records that his 2nd wife came from Amsterdam and that step-daughter Maria Elisabeth Lechner had been born in the Volga German colony of Reinhard.
- 1776 Katharinenstadt Grundbuch [Land Register] (Household No. 102).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 29.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 64.
- 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): Ka128.
- Parish register of Grünberg (LDS Intl Film #1195960).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 296.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #154.
Bill Pickelhaupt
Brent Mai