Gammerstrath*
Joseph Gammerstrath was born in about 1737 in Staffort. He immigrated to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein) where he settled in the colony of Christiansheide first on 7 December 1761 on the farmstead of Bärens Hof, moving on 31 October 1762 to the farmstead of Basballes Hof.
The marriage of Joshua [sic] Gammerstrath and the widow of Johann Matthias Grenemeier [Maria Margaretha Zwecker] is recorded on 8 January 1762 in the parish of Handewitt. She had been born on 30 January 1719 in Graben Neudorf.
He immigrated to Russia, settling in the colony of Beideck, where he married Maria Margaretha Zwecker, widow of Johann Matthias Grünemeier.
They are recorded on the 1775 census of Beideck in Household No. 22.
Joseph Gammerstrath is recorded as a widower on the 1798 census of Beideck in Household No. Bd36.
Some translations of this surname use Hammerstrab.
It is not believed that the surname of Gammerstrath continued among the Volga German colonies.
- 1775 Beideck Census (No. 22).
- Clausen, Otto. Chronik der Heide- und Moorkolonisation im Herzogtum Schleswig, 1760-1765 (Husum: Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, 1981): 850.
- Eichhorn, Alexander, Jacob & Mary Eichhorn. The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Drukerei und Verlag Steinmeier GmbH & Co. Kg, 2012): 412.
- Lang, Gerhard. German Colonists of Denmark on the Volga.
- 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): Bd36.
- Parish register of Handewitt (LDS No. 1198952).
Gerhard Lang
Wayne Bonner