Valentin Schwabenland, born in about 1743, married Maria Angela Orschied on 6 May 1764 in the Evangelical Church of Kriegsfeld, a German village located 17 kilometers southwest of Alzey in what today is the state of Rheinland-Pfalz. Their son, Johann Daniel, was born 4 February 1765 in Kriegsfeld.
Valentin Schwabenland and his family, along with Johannes, Valentin's brother who had been born in about 1749, immigrated to Russia as colonists of the recruiter LeRoi. They departed from the port of Lübeck aboard the ship Die Junger Friederika with skipper Christian Korsholm at the helm. They arrived at the port in Oranienbaum on 18 June 1766.
During the journey to the Volga German colonies, both Valentin's son and brother died. In Feb 1767, they had a new boy who was named Johann Nikolaus. All of them arrived in Straub on 12 May 1767 where they are recorded on the 1767 census in Household No. 33.
Valentin's widow is still living in Straub on the 1798 Census in Household No. Sr46.
- 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): Sr46.
- Parish records for Kriegsfeld (LDS Film No. 193924).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 237.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #943.
Corina Hirt
Brent Mai