Siegward(t)
Hans Michael Siegwardt, son of Christoph Siegwarth (b. 5 December 1700) and Anna Maria Mäulen (b. 4 March 1703/04), was born on 20 March 1730/31 in Metzingen, Württemberg. He married in 1756 in Wiernsheim, Württemberg, to Regina Dorothea Spielmann, daughter of Michael Heinrich Spielmann & Anna Margaretha Größle. She was born on 10 September 1735 in Wiernsheim.
Michael Siewert [sic] immigrated to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein) where he rented a place from Georg Michael Henser. In 1763, he began working in Denmark as a recruitor of colonists to immigrate to Russia. He himself joined the migration in January 1764, but was caught while attempting to escape the Danish colonies and was sentenced to 6-months in jail. He was released in early August 1764, and by December 1764 was once again working as a recruitor on behalf of Pictet and Roi.
He again joined the migration to Russia and settled in the Volga Geman colony of Dreispitz on 16 September 1766. He and his family are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 12.
In 1788, Michael Siegward and his family moved from Dreispitz to Kraft.
The Eichhorns record that Michael Siewert was a butcher (Schlachter) from the German village of Metzingen in the Württemberg region.
- 1834 Kraft Census (Households No. 2, 23, 39, 55, 94).
- 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: Steinmeier, 2012): B-1579.
- 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): Kf28, Kf66, Mv0516.
- Parish records of Metzingen (LDS Film #1475275).
- Parish records of Wiernsheim.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 374.
Edward F. Wagner
Günter Sichward
Brent Mai