Johann Wilhelm Neeb was born in Kestrich bei Romrod on 27 November 1744 and baptized there on 1 December 1744. He was the son of Johannes & Anna Catharina Neeb who had been married there on 29 July 1741.
Johann Wilhelm Neeb [sic] from Kestrich near Romrod & Anna Catharina Wentzel, daughter of Adam Wentzel from Ober Breitenbach, married on 13 May 1766 in Büdingen where they gathered before departure to Russia.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Kraft on 18 August 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 12.
The 1767 census records that Wilhelm Näb [some translations record his name as Kess] came from the German village of Kestrich.
Widow Anna Katharina Näb is recorded on the 1798 census of Kraft in Household No. Kf60 along with her daughter Susanna and Susanna's family.
Johann Adam Näb, presumed to be a son of Johann Wilhelm Näb, and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Kraft in Household No. Kf06.
This surname has many spelling variations: Näb, Nab, Nabe, Naeb, and Neb.
- 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): Kf06, Kf60.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt. German Migration to the Russian Volga (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): #642.
- Parish records for a group of villages that includes Kestrich (LDS Film No. 1195717).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 396.
Bill Pickelhaupt
Brent Mai