The lists of the recruiter Johann Facius include Joseph Schöneman, from Michelau, with his wife, and four children.
According to the Wolferborn parish records, Joseph Schöneman, son of Conrad Schöneman, married on 2 May 1753 to Anna Margareatha Seipert, daughter of Johann Philip Seipert. Both the bride and groom are recorded to be from neighboring Michelau. The Wolferborn parish records record the baptisms of six children: (1) Johann Heinrich, baptized 4 October 1753; twins (2) & (3) Rosina and Anna Maria, baptized 11 April 1756; (4) Johannes, baptized 12 Mar 1758; (5) Sebastian, baptized 11 May 1761; and (6) Anna Maria, baptized 28 March 1766.
Joseph Schöneman, a cobbler, his wife Anna, children (Johann, age 15; Rosina, age 12; Johannes, age 11; Anna, age ½), and his wife's sister Anna Maria [Seipert] (age 20) arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 22 July 1766 aboard the pink Lev under the command of Lieutenant Fyodor Fyodorov.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Norka on 15 August 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 116.
- 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): Nr176, Nr193.
- Parish records of Wolferborn.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 260.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2326.
Maggie Hein
Brent Mai