Raab (Balzer)
There are several Raab families that settled in the Volga German colony of Balzer on 18 July 1767. They all came from the German village of Düdelsheim, but their relationship to each other, if any, requires additional research. [#1 & #3 may be siblings.]
(1) Johann Heinrich Raab, son of Luther [per Bonner] Anton [per Decker] Raab & Anna Elisabeth Reichard, was baptized in Düdelsheim on 29 May 1735.
He married in Büdingen on 14 April 1766 to Magdalena Reibert [née Dreut] from Mochstadt. Maria Magdalena Dreut, daughter of Johann Joachim & Maria Magdalena Dreut, had been baptized 28 October 1732 in Ober-Mockstadt. She had previously been married to Johann Philipp Reibert. [See Reibert Family.]
Heinrich Raab, a farmer, his wife Magdalena, and [step-]daughter Margaretha [Reibert] arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard a packet-boat under the command of Midshipman Mankensey.
Heinrich Raab, a farmer, his wife Magdalena, and [step-]daughter Margaretha (age 16?) are recorded on the 1767 census of Balzer in Household No. 49.
The Raab and Ochsenhirt (Messer) families are first cousins, as their mothers (née Reichard) are sisters.
(2) Johannes Raab, son of Johann Philipp Raab, was baptized on 14 April 1695 in Düdelsheim. He married in Düdelsheim on 30 October 1744 to Maria Margaretha Becker, daughter of Johann Bartol & Anna Barbara Becker. She had been baptized in Düdelsheim on 29 January 1709.
The baptism of Elisabeth Raab, daughter of Johannes Raab & Anna Barbara Becker is recorded on the parish register of Düdelsheim on 4 July 1745. She married in Düdelsheim on 30 August 1764 to Hermann Fech, son of Johannes & Anna Maria Fech. He had been baptized in Düdelsheim on 1 December 1735. [See Fech Family.]
Johannes & Anna Maria Raab, along with their daughter [Anna] Elisabeth and son-in-law Hermann Fecht arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard a Russian packet-boat under the command of Lieutenant Pyotr Malinkov. They are recorded on the 1767 census of Balzer in Household No. 50.
(3) Anna Catharina Raab, daughter of Anton & Anna Elisabetha Raab, was baptized 23 November 1721 in Düdelsheim. She married in Düdelsheim on 5 April 1742 to Johann Adam Scheidmantel from Schwartzfels.
Johann Adam Scheidmantel died in Germany. Anna Catharina Scheidmantel née Raab arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard a packet-boat under the command of Midshipman Mankensey along with daughters (Katharina; Susanna, age 20; Elisabeth, age 8) and Katharina's husband Philipp Kaiser. [See Scheidmantel Family.]
- 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): Bz079.
- Mai, Brent Alan, trans. & ed. Transport of the Volga Germans from Oranienbaum to the Colonies on the Volga: 1766-1767 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1998): #6379-6380.
- 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): #532.
- Müller, Hanno. Familienbuch Trais-Horloff, Inheiden, Utphe, Kreis Giessen (Darmstadt: Hessische Familiengeschichtliche Vereinigung, 1997): 322.
- Parish register of Düdelsheim (LDS Intl Film #1201789).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 85.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1213, #1214, #1222.
John Wall
Wayne Bonner
Brent Mai