Johann Schmidt, a single farmer, arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 17 July 1766 aboard the pink named Lev (Lion) under the command of Lieutenant Fyodor Fyodorov.
He arrived in Oranienbaum with several families that settled in the Volga German colony of Grimm and is therefore believed to be the same Johann Georg Schmidt who is later recorded on the 1775 census of Grimm in Household No. 35.
Johann Georg Schmidt, his wife Katharina Elisabeth, and children (Johann Philipp, age 4½; Maria Barbara, age ¾; Elisabeth Margaretha, age ¾) are recorded on the 1775 census of Grimm in Household No. 35. Also recorded in the household are stepdaughters Maria Elisabeth (age 9) & Anna Maria (age 8) Fries and orphan Margaretha Riegel (age 21). The 1775 census of Grimm does not record a relationship among the Schmidt, Fries, and Riegel families.
The Oraniebaum passenger list records that Johann Schmidt came from the German region of Isenburg.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Schmidt family among the Volga German colonies.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 31.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 315.
- 1775 Grimm Census (Household No. 35).
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2321.
Brent Mai