There are two Eckhardt families that arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 15 September 1766 aboard the galliot Johannes under the command of Skipper Stahl. Both of them settled in the Volga German colony of Frank in 1767. The 1767 census does not record their relationship to each other.
(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 en 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 en route.
They are recorded on the 1767 census of Frank in Household No. 47.
- 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