Koch (Basel)*

There are 2 Koch families who immigrated to Russia from the German village of Buchenau. Their relationship to each other, if any, needs further research:

(1) Johann Ludwig Koch was born about 1730 in Friedensdorf. He married on 24 March 1753 in Buchenau to Elisabeth Göbel, daughter of Heinrich Göbel, who was born about 1725. They had four known children, each baptized in Buchenau: (1) Anna, baptized 12 November 1753, died 15 May 1754; (2) Gertraud, baptized 21 May 1755; (3) Anna Elisabetha, baptized 4 August 1758, and (4) Hans Heinrich, baptized 31 May 1762.

Johann [Ludwig] Koch, a farmer, his wife Elisabeth, and children (Johann, age 20; Gertrude, age 12; Elisabeth, age 9; Heinrich, age 5) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 12 September 1766 aboard the English frigate Love and Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax.

Joh. Ludwig Koch, his wife Elisabetha, and children (Joh. Heinrich, age 20; Gerdrut, age 12; Elisabetha, age 9; Hanss Heinrich, age 5¼) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that mother Elisabetha, daughter Elisabetha, and Hanss Heinrich died en route.

Widower Ludwig and daughter Gertraud are recorded on an appendix to the 1767 census of Katharinenstadt in Household No. 36 along with a note that they relocated in 1768 to the colony of Basel.  Ludwig is recorded on the 1798 census of Basel in Household No. Bs37.

The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann [Ludwig] Koch came from the German region of Darmstadt. The 1767 census records that he came from the German village of Buchenau in the Darmstadt region.

(2) Johann Heinrich Koch, a farmer, and his wife Elisabeth are recorded on an appendix to the 1767 census of Katharinenstadt in Household No. 18 along with a note that they relocated to the colony of Basel in 1768. [He may be the oldest son of Johann Ludwig Koch recorded arriving in Oranienbaum.]