Johann Nikolaus Lufft, son of Johann Georg Lufft, married in Höchst im Odenwald on 26 September 1747 to Susanna Catharina Hallstein, daughter of Johannes Leonhard & Anna Barbara Hallstein. Susanna was born on 26 September 1713 and baptized on 29 September 1713 in Höchst. Johann Nikolaus & Susanna had the following children, each baptized in Höchst: (1) Veronika (born 7 January 1747, baptized 8 January 1748); (2) Maria Barbara (born 27 February 1749, baptized 28 February 1749); (3) Johann Heinrich (born 27 April 1750, baptized 29 April 1750); (4) Eva Maria (born 9 January 1753, baptized 11 January 1753); (5) Johann Georg (born 30 June 1755, baptized 2 July 1755); and (6) Maria Catharina (born 27 May 1758, baptized 29 May 1758).
Johann Nikolaus died and Susanna remarried on 28 April 1761 in Höchst to Johann Philipp Lust, son of Johann Leonhard & Anna Margaretha Lust. He had been born on 23 November 1726 and baptized in Höchst on 26 November 1726. Susanna and Philipp Lust had two children, both baptized in Höchst: (1) Johann Balthasar (born 5 January 1762, baptized 7 January 1762) and Johann Nikolaus (born 21 January 1764, baptized 22 January 1764).
Philipp and Susanna, along with the combined Lufft and Lust children, immigrated to Russia. While gathering in the port city of Lübeck with other immigrant families, Veronika, Susanna's oldest daughter from her first marriage to Nikolaus Lufft, married in Lübeck's Lutheran Cathedral to Johann Georg Morasch on 29 May 1766. Johann Georg Morasch was the son of Johann Morasch & Anna Eva Joachim, and had been born 6 August 1742 in Mümling-Grumach, just south of Höchst im Odenwald where he was baptized on 7 August 1742.
The newly combined Lust, Lufft, and Morasch families arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum aboard the Russian galliot Citadel on 11 August 1766.
Phillip Lust, his wife Susanna, and children (Joh. Henrich [Luft], age 16; Eva Maria [Luft], age 15; Joh. Georg [Luft], age 12; Maria Cathrina [Luft], age 9; Balthasar, age 5; Nicolaus, age 3) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
The following summer they settled in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana on 16 September 1767, and are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Households No. 66 (Lust & Luft) and No. 67 (Morasch).
By the time that the 1798 Census of Yagodnaya Polyana was taken, Susanna is a widow living with son Nikolaus Lust in Household No. Yp72. Son Heinrich Luft and his family are in Household No. Yp62. Son John Georg Luft and his family are in Household No. Yp66. Daughter Maria Luft has married Konrad Scheuermann of Household No. Yp82. Georg & Veronkia Morasch are living in Household No. Yp77.
- Gieg, Ella. Auswanderungen aus dem Odenwaldkreis Band 5 (Lützelbach: E. Gieg, 1988-1997): 258 & 260.
- 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): Yp62, Yp66.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): 19.
- Parish records of Höchst (LDS Film Nos. 1193268 & 1193269).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 190.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #5234, #5235.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #8367-8374.
Bill Pickelhaupt
Brent Mai