There are two Nafts families that immigrated to the Volga colonies in Russia. The are both from the German village of Gelnhausen, but their relationship to each other, if any, needs further research.
(1) Conrad Nafts was born in Gelnhausen. He married Maria Elisabeth Ferter. She was born 16 October 1749 in Gelnhausen and died 6 November 1816 in Dönhof Russia.
Conard’s father Philipp is also believed to have accompanied them on the first part of the journey, but does not appear in the 1767 census of Dönhof.
Konrad Nafts arrived in Dönhof on 18 June 1767. Orphan Konrad Nafts is recorded on the 1767 census of Dönhof in Household No. 76 along with the widow Margaretha Rehl and her son Wilhelm (age 19) and another orphan, Margaretha Kraus (age 18). The 1767 census does not record a relationship among the Nafts, Rehl, and Kraus families.
Konrad Nafts and his family (sons: Georg Philipp, age 27; Johannes, age 21; Johann Kaspar, age 19; Wilhelm, age 16; Johann Philipp, age 14; Johann Heinrich, age 11; Johannes, age 8) are recorded on the 1798 census of Dönhof in Household No. Dh077.
[Johann] Kaspar Nafts from Dönhof is recorded on the 1811 census of Schwed in Household No. 30.
(2) Heinrich Philipp Nafts, son of Heinrich Balthasar Naphz & Anna Maria Buß, was born in Gelnhausen on 25 November 1731. He married in Büdingen on 4 March 1766 to Susanna Maria Kayser, daughter of Johann Adam Kayser & Anna Margaretha Froschhäuser.
The newlyweds arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard the ship Der Junge Mathias under the command of Skipper David Wollert.
Philipp Nafts and his wife Susanna Maria are recorded on the 1775 census of Beideck in Household No. 59.
Philipp Nafts and his family are recorded on the 1798 census Beideck in Household No. Bd59.
The exact relationship of these two Nafts families is unknown at this time.
- 1775 Beideck Census (Household No. 59).
- 1811 Schwed Census (Household No. 30).
- Frey, Julius. "Auswanderung aus den Kreisen Gelnhausen und Büdingen im Jahre 1766." Geschichtsblätter für Stadt und Kreis Glenhausen. Herausgeber: Geschichtsverein Gelnhausen, 1965.
- Hepperlen, Joan. Family History of Phillip & Eva Elisabeth Stromberger Bechtholt of Tacoma, Washington (Ocean Shores, WA: J.M. Hepperlen, 1999).
- 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): Dh077, Bd59.
- 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): #364.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 362.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1859.
Joan Hepperlen
Brent Mai