Two Eckhardt families arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 18 August 1766 aboard the galliot named St. Johannes (Saint John) under the command of Skipper Carstens Stahl. Both of them settled in the Volga German colony of Frank in 1767. Their relationship to each other, if any, needs additional research.
(1) Johann Jacob Eckhardt, son of Johannes Eckhardt & Anna Elisabeth Töpffer, was born 15 August 1743 in Nidda, Hesse, Germany. His lineage can be traced back to Jost Eckhard, citizen, church elder, and tanner, who was baptized on 23 August 1631 in Nidda, Hesse, Germany, son of Peter Eckhardt.
Johann Jakob Eckhardt, a tanner, and his wife Ernestina Maria arrived in Oranienbaum.
Jacob Eckhardt and his wife Christina Maria are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
(2) Hartmann Eckhardt, a tanner, his wife Elisabeth, and son Jakob (age 7) arrived in Oranienbaum.
Hartmann Eckhardt, his wife Elisabeth, and sons (Jacob, age 7; Johann Jacob, born in route) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that wife Elisabeth died in route.
They are recorded on the 1767 census of Frank in Household No. 47.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that both of these Eckhardt families came from the German region of Darmstadt.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 792.
- 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): Fk058, Fk095, Fk119.
- 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): #7056-7059, #7061-7062.
- Parish register of Nidda (LDS Film #1146234).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 426.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6330, #6331.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #8170-8173, 8175-8176.
Dorothy Hoff Thomas
Doris Evans
Brent Mai