Johann Peter Kraft, son of Johann Martin Kraft & Elisabeth Christina Schuchmann, was born 26 June 1746 in Nieder-Modau, just south of Ober-Ramstadt. He was the second youngest of 10 children.
Peter Kraft, a tailor, arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 11 June 1766 aboard the ship named Der Junge Heinrich under the command of Skipper Heinrich Niemann.
He settled in the Volga German colony of Straub on 12 July 1767 and is recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 49 along with his new wife Maria Eva (age 19).
Peter Kraft and his sons (Johann Philipp, Johann Heinrich, Johann Anton) are recorded on the 1811 census of Straub in Household No. 27 along with a note that they relocated to the colony of Neu-Straub [year not recorded].
In 1806, Anton Kraft and his family relocated from Neu-Straub to Warenburg and are recorded on the 1811 census of Warenburg in Household No. 91.
The 1767 census records that Peter Kraft came from the German village of Nieder-Mondau in the Darmstadt region.
- 1811 Straub Census (Household No. 27).
- 1811 Warenburg Census (Household No. 91).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 30.
- Kirschnick, Ulrich. Ortsfamilienbuch Ober-Ramstadt (online)
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Sr27.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 241.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2080.
Bill Pickelhaupt
Brent Mai