Two Günther families arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 11 August 1766 aboard a ship named Кир Иоанн (Cyrus John) under the command of Midshipman Gavriil Poddubskii. Their relationship to each other, if any, requires additional research.
(1) Johann Adam Günther, a farmer, and his wife Anna Margaretha arrived in Oranienbaum.
Johann Adam Günther and his wife Anna Margaretha are recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that both died en route.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Adam Günther came from the German region of Darmstadt.
(2) Johann Heinrich Günther, a farmer, his wife Anna Veronika, and children (Anna Elisabeth, age 20; Johann, age 12; David, age 9; Johann Heinrich, age 4) arrived in Oranienbaum.
Johann Heinrich Günter, Anna Veronicka, and children (Anna Elisabeth, age 18; Johannes, age 10; Johann David, age 7; Johann Heinrich, age 4) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that the mother Anna Veronicka died en route.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Stephan on 24 August 1767. Johann Heinrich Günther, a cobbler (Schuhmacher), is recorded there as a widower in Household No. 18. A note on the 1767 census records that this Günther family relocated to the colony of Schilling in 1768.
Johann Heinrich Günther, son of Johann Heinrich Günther, and his fammily are recorded on the 1798 census of Stephan in Household No. Sp36.
Heinrich Günther (who died in 1849) and his family are recorded on the 1850 census of Stephan in Household No. 50.
Georg Adam Günther, grandson of Heinrich Günther, from Stephan and his family are recorded on the 1857 census of Gnadentau.
Johann Georg Günther, grandson of Heinrich Günther, from Stephan and his family are recorded on the 1857 census of Gnadentau.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Heinrich Günther came from the German region of Darmstadt. The 1767 census records that Johann Heinrich Günther came from the German village of Heilberscheid.
- 1850 Stephan Census (Household No. 50).
- 1857 Gnadentau Census.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 33.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 699, 700.
- 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): Sp36.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 224.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5580.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #2258-2263.
Brent Mai