Jakob Christiansen, a farmer, and his wife Elisabeth arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 10 June 1766 aboard a boat named Святая Екатерина (St. Catherine) under the command of Midshipman Alexander Trusov.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Schwed on 1 July 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 25 along with newborn daughter Elisabeth Christina.
It is believed that this surname became "Christ" by the 1798 census.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Jakob Christiansen came from the German region of Sommerfeld. The 1767 census records that he came from the French village of Saint-Omer.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 30.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 182.
- 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): Sw12.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 146.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1204.
Brent Mai