Rutz (Dönhof-3)
Johann Nikolaus Rutz (age 52) from the region of Hessen-Darmstadt arrived in Flensburg, Denmark [Schleswig-Holstein], on 19 June 1762 along with his [2nd?] wife Sophia Eleonora (age 28) and children (Johann Wendell, age 14; Ludewig, age 4; Catharina, age 2).
The marriage of Johann Nicolai Rutz, believed to be the son of Johann Nikolaus Rutz (above), and Catharina Kohmer [Gomer] is recorded on the parish register of Grossenwiehe (Schleswig) on 14 November 1762. [See Gomer Family.]
On 27 April 1765, they deserted their home there and joined the migration to Russia. [Johann Nikolaus Rutz (Sr.) and his family are still recorded in Denmark as of December 1766.]
Nikolaus Rutz (the son) and his family settled in the Volga German colony of Dönhof on 21 July 1766. They are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 14.
The 1767 census records that Nikolaus Rutz came from the German region of Darmstadt.
- Eichhorn, Alexander, Jacob & Mary Eichhorn. The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Drukerei und Verlag Steinmeier GmbH & Co. Kg, 2012): B-1393, B-1394.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Dh092.
- Parish register of Grossenwiehe (Schleswig).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis; 1999): 344.
Brent Mai
Wayne Bonner