Johann Conrad Schönhals, son of Johannes Schönhals, was born 25 May 1717 in Rainrod. He married Anna Christina (surname unknown). She had been born 14 November 1713.
The births of 7 of their children are recorded on the parish register of Rainrod: (1) Christina, born 18 November 1740; (2) Anna Elisabeth, born 29 January 1742; (3) Maria Elisabeth, born 28 February 1743, died 30 April 1743; (4) Johann Jost, born 30 August 1745; (5) Eva Elisabeth, born 11 February 1748; (6) Johann Georg, born 20 October 1750; and (7) Maria Elisabeth, born 3 June 1756.
Mother Anna Christina died 14 January 1759, and Conrad remarried on 2 October 1760 in Rainrod to Maria Catharina Fink. The births of 3 of their children are recorded in the parish register of Rainrod: (1) Anna Elisabetha, born 15 November 1761; (2) Christina, born 12 November 1763, died 20 February 1764; and (3) Anna Catharina, born 17 January 1765. Conrad died in Rainrod on 1 November 1788 and his 2nd wife Maria Catharina died there on 3 February 1805.
Conrad's son Johann Jost Schönhals, a farmer, his brother Johann Georg (age 18), and his sister Anna Elisabeth (age 24) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 August 1766 aboard the pink Novaya Dvinka under the command of Lieutenant Perepechin.
Johann Jost Schönhals settled in the Volga German colony of Dönhof on 18 June 1767 and is recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 87.
Johann Georg Schönhals is recorded on the 1767 census of Müller in Household No. 5 along with his sister Anna Elisabeth who had married widower Daniel Fuchs. They had settled there on 16 August 1767. Johann Georg Schönhals is recorded on the 1798 census of Stephan in Household No. Sp31. Sister Anna Elisabeth Schönhals is recorded on the 1798 census of Stephan in Household No. Sp33 married to Johann Georg Götz.
Johann Georg Schönhals from Stephan and his family are recorded on the 1857 census of Gnadentau.
Another Schönhals from Rainrod also moved to Russia. Her relationship to the others is undetermined at this time. Eva Elisabeth Schönhals, daughter of Johann Heinrich & Maria Schönhals, was born 26 April 1723 in Rainrod. She married on 25 June 1756 in Hopfgarten to Johannes Schäfer. They arrived in Oranienbaum with the others, and are recorded on the 1767 census of Müller in Household No. 4.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that the Schönhals siblings came from the German region of Darmstadt.
Rudolf Schäfer records that this Schönhals family comes from the German village of Rainrod.
- 1857 Gnadentau Census.
- 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): Dh060, Sp31.
- Parish registers of Hopfgarten and Rainrod.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 364.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 176.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3894.
- Schäfer, Rudolf. "Auswanderungen aus der Pfarrei Hopfgarten nach Russland im Jahre 1766." Mitgliederbereich der Hessischen familiengeschichtlichen Vereinigung e.V.Darmstadt Band 4, Heft 10 (May 1937): 463-464.
- Wächter, Marion & Udo Döring. Familienbuch Hopfgarten mit Hergersdorf, Ober- und Untersorg, Melchiorsgrund, Scheufelhof, Rainrod und Vadenrod (Darmstadt, 2013): #3683.
Brent Mai
Bill Pickelhaupt
Wayne Bonner