Johann Heinrich Dietz, son of Johann Jacob Dietz & Catharina Knöß was born 14 February 1697 in Sellnrod and baptized there on 15 February 1697. He married on 4 February 1731 in Sellnrod to Anna Elisabetha Peppler, daughter of Johannes Peppler, from Helpershain. Anna Elisabetha Peppler had been baptized 17 December 1710 in Helpershain. [Her relationship, if any, to Johann Heinrich Peppler who settled in Hussenbach needs further research. See Peppler family.]
The births of the following children to Johann Heinrich Dietz & Anna Elisabetha Peppler are recorded in the parish register of Sellnrod: (1) Johann Martin, born 3 January 1732, baptized 6 January 1732; (2) Elisabetha, born 28 August 1734, baptized 30 August 1734; (3) Conrad, born 18 December 1736, baptized 19 December 1736; (4) Susanna Elisabetha, born 23 September 1737, baptized 26 September 1737; (5) Johann Hartmann, born 3 February 1741, baptized 6 February 1741; and (6) Johann Jacob, born 30 September 1744, baptized 2 October 1744. Another child is born to Johann Heinrich Dietz in Sellnrod, but the mother is uncertain: Anna Sophia Dietz, born 25 February 1747; baptized 27 February 1747.
Johann Heinrich Dietz died in Sellnrod on 13 April 1752.
Johann Martin Dietz married on 30 July 1762 in Sellnrod to Anna Krämer. The births of two of their children are recorded in Sellnrod: (1) Johann Peter, born 5 September 1762; and (2) Anna Elizabeth, born 21 April 1765.
Elisabeth Dietz and her children (Elisabeth, age 30; Johann Jakob [age not recorded]; Johann Konrad, age 19) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 13 September 1766 aboard the galliot Die Perle under the command of Skipper Thomson along with Johann Martin Dietz, his wife Anna and children (Johann Peter, age 4; Anna Elisabeth, age 1½).
Martin Dietz, his wife Anna, and children (Johann Peter, age 5; Elisabeth, age 2) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Walter on 25 August 1767.
Johann Jakob and his family are recorded on the 1767 census of Walter in Household No. 68.
The widow of Jakob Dietz of Walter is recorded on the 1798 census of Kolb in Household No. Ko33.
Johann Konrad is recorded on the 1767 census of Walter in Household No. 66.
Johann Martin Dietz and his family are recorded on the 1767 census of Walter in Household No. 93.
The 1767 census of Walter records that these Dietz families came from the German village of Zell-Romrod [sic] in the district of Hessen-Darmstadt.
- 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): Ko33, Wt002, Wt003, Wt038.
- Mai, Brent Alan, trans. & ed. Transport of the Volga Germans from Oranienbaum to the Colonies on the Volga: 1766-1767 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1998): 7359-7362.
- Parish register of Helpershain.
- Parish register of Sellnrod (LDS Film No. 1201577).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 310, 316.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6298, #6300.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #8473-8476.
- Stahnke, Günter, ed. Ortsfamilienbuch Sellnrod [Online].
Brent Mai
Jean Roth
Maggie Hein