On 14 September 1728 in Burghaun, Johann Valentin Rommel, son of Johann Reinhardt Rommel, married Anna Maria Ebert, daughter of Reinhardt Ebert. They had the following children, each baptized in Burghaun: (1) Caspar, baptized 21 June 1729, died 10 March 1730; (2) Johannes, born 9 January 1731 & baptized 11 January 1731; (3) Anna Margaretha, baptized 11 April 1733; and (4) Anna Maria, baptized 5 May 1736. Anna Maria Ebert Rommel died on 28 September 1744. Valentin then married Anna Barbara [no record of this marriage is found in the Burghaun records, likely because several pages of marriage records missing for 1745]. They had the following children, each baptized in Burghaun: (1) Anna Catharina, baptized 8 December 1745; (2) Maria Elisabeth, baptized 25 November 1747; (3) Johann Valentin, baptized 6 February 1750; (4) Johann Caspar, baptized 8 August 1752; and (5) Maria Barbara, baptized 14 June 1755. Valentin’s second wife (Anna Barbara) died on 7 April 1759. Valentin then remarried on 16 July 1760 to Cunigunda Quantz, the widow of Georg Göbel. Valentin & Cunigunda then had one child, Anna Kunigunda, who was baptized on 2 March 1761 in Burghaun. Cunigunda had also earlier been married to Johann Heinrich Zinn, and had a son Johann Adam Zinn from that marriage.
Valentin's oldest son, Johannes Rommel, married Anna Catharina Stamm on 24 January 1758 in Burghaun. Johannes & Anna Catharina had one child, Johannes, born on 25 October 1759. Anna Catharina died on 4 August 1763, and Johannes remarried on 15 November 1763 to Anna Barbara Köhner, daughter of Jacob Friedrich Köhner. They had one child, Johann Christian, born 12 May 1765.
Valentin Rommel, a farmer, his wife Cunigunda, and children (Valentin, age 16; Kaspar, age 14; Johann [Zinn], age 14; Barbara, age 11) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 September 1766 aboard a ship under the command of Skipper Johann Hermann Anderson. Valentin's son Johann[es] and his family had arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum a few days earlier, on 13 September 1766 aboard the galliot Die Perle under the command of Skipper Thomson.
Valentin Rummel [sic], his wife Cunigunda, and children (Maria Elisab., age 20; Valentin, age 18; Caspar, age 16; Johann Adam [Zinn], age 15, Maria Barbara, age 12) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Johannes Rommel, his wife Barbara, and son Johannes (age 7) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They all settled in the Volga German colony of Hussenbach and are recorded there on the 1798 census in Households No. Hs020, Hs081, and Hs089.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Valentin Rommel came from the German region of Fulda.
One of the children recorded on the Oranienbaum passenger list with Valentin Rommel is Johann (age 14). He is actually Johann Adam Zinn, the son of Valentin's wife Kunigunda from her earlier marriage to Johann Heinrich Zinn.
Research reported by Dr. Igor Plehve mistakenly records the children of both Valentin and Johannes as those of Valentin.
- 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): Hs020, Hs081, Hs089.
- 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): #3189 - #3195.
- Parish register of Burghaun.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6244, #6591.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #7192-7198, 8016-8018.
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai