Johann Matthias Grünemeier, son of Hans Christoph Grünemeier & Anna Catharina Krammerer, was born 22 January 1700 in Graben Neudorf, north of Karlsruhe (today in Baden-Württemberg). He married there on 6 February 1731 to Maria Elisabeth Kammerer. She was born in Graben Neudorf on 1 January 1711 and died on 30 July 1739. Johann Matthias remarried to Maria Margaretha Zwecker on 1 February 1740 in Graben. She was born 30 January 1719, also in Graben Neudorf.
Johann Matthias and Maria Margaretha had at least eight children, each baptized in Graben: (1) Johann Matthias, on 21 December 1740, and died on 25 December 1744; (2) Margaretha Magdalena, on 24 March 1743; (3) Johann Matthias (again), on 19 December 1745, and died on 13 November 1751; (4) Anna Catharina, on 18 May 1748; (5) Christoph, on 7 May 1751; (6) Johann Adam, on 3 February 1754, and died on 28 April 1754; (7) Margaretha Barbara, on 10 July 1755, and died on 28 July 1755; and (8) Matthias, on 29 October 1756.
The family moved to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein), arriving there on 17 July 1761 under the leadership of Georg Hermann. They settled in the colony of Friederichs Mohr on farmstead Printzenhof. The father Johann Matthias appears to have died there on 3 December 1761.
Maria Margaretha Zwecker later married Joseph Gammerstrath and the family immigrated to Russia and settled in Beideck. Daughter Margaretha Magdalena and her husband Johannes Beideck also immigrated to Russia and settled in Beideck. [See Beideck Family.] They are recorded on the 1775 census of Beideck in Household No. 22.
Son Matthias married on 26 January 1787 in Beideck to Anna Maria Eitel. Daughter Margaretha Magdalena, who had married to Johannes Beideck, died there on 16 June 1788.
On the Beideck 1798 census, son Matthias is recorded in Household No. Bd22, son Christoph in Household No. Bd36, and daughter Anna Katharina in Household No. Bd37.
- 1775 Census of Beideck (No. 22).
- Clausen, Otto. Chronik der Heide- und Moorkolonisation im Herzogtum Schleswig, 1760-1765 (Husum: Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, 1981): 838.
- 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): B-514.
- Frank database.
- 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): Bd22, Bd36.
- Parish records of Graben (LDS Film No. 1238310).
- Parish records of Spöck (LDS Film No. 1238306).
Martha Greenemeier
Corina Hirt
Gerhard Lang
Brent Mai