Wilhelm Ferdinand Leopold Lich and Anna Maria Lorey were married in Leisenwald (part of the Spielberg parish near Wächtersbach) on 2 April 1750. They had five children whose baptisms in Leisenwald are recorded in the parish register of Spielberg: (1) Johann Adam, baptized 8 November 1750; (2) Elisabeth, baptized 25 June 1752; (3) Susanna, baptized 28 July 1754; (4) Johann Georg, baptized 3 October 1756; and (5) Johannes, baptized 29 July 1761.
Ferdinand Licht, a farmer, his wife Anna, and children (Susanna, age 14; Anna, age 12; Johann, age 5¼) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard a snow-brig named Christina under the command of Skipper Jacob Stappenberg. Three of the children (Susanna, Elisabeth, and Johannes Licht) arrived in the Volga German colony of Kutter on 8 July 1767. They are recorded as orphans on the 1767 census of Kutter in Household No. 2.
In 1788, Johannes Licht moved to Moor, and is recorded there in the 1798 census. Susanna moved to Balzer where she married Johannes Grassmück, and is recorded there on the 1798 census.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Ferdinand Licht came from the German region of Isenburg.
- 1834 Moor Census (Households No. 55, 97).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 32.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 414.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Mo44, Mv1460.
- Parish register of Spielberg.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 476.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3213.
Wayne Bonner
Maggie Hein
Doreen Connelly
Brent Mai