Johann Christoph Erck, son of Weigand & Anna Katharina Erck, was born in 1693 in Nidda. He married Anna Margaretha Runck. The births of 3 children are recorded in Nidda: (1) Anna Katharina, born 26 December 1721; (2) Johann Wilhelm, born 23 October 1724; and (3) Anna Margaretha, born 4 July 1727.
Father Christoph Erck 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 along with his daughter Anna Katharina and son-in-law Johann Konrad Bähr as well as daughter Anna Margaretha and son-in-law Johann Heinrich Frick.
Christoph Erck is recorded on the 1767 census of Frank in Household No. 77.
Daughter Anna Katharina Bähr née Erck and her family are recorded on the 1767 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. 77. [See Bähr Family.]
Daughter Anna Margaretha Frick née Erck and her family are recorded on the 1767 census of Frank in Household No. 78. [See Frick Family.]
Another daughter, Anna Maria married widower Johannes Zimmer on 26 June 1767 in the Lutheran Church of Büdingen. [See Zimmer Family.] They don't appear to have made it to Russia, but a couple of children of Johannes Zimmer by his previous marriage made it:
(1) Anna Margaretha Zimmer (age 13) is recorded on the 1767 census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. 77 along with the aforementioned Johann Konrad Bär family.
(2) Johannes (junior) Zimmer (age 8) is recorded on the 1767 census of Frank in Household No. 78 along with the aforementioned Johann Heinrich Frick family.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Erck family among the Volga German colonies.
- 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): 790.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): #715.
- Parish register of Nidda (LDS Film #1146234).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 430.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 193.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6319, #6320.
Doris Evans
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai