Two Simon families from the German village of Bieber arrived together from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard an English frigate named Love & Unity under the command of Skipper Thomas Fairfax. Their relationship to each other, if any, requires further research.
(1) Johannes Wilhelm Simon, son of Johannes Kaspar & Anna Katharina Simon, was born 26 August 1715.
He married on 5 July 1748 in Bieber to Maria Elisabetha Ehmann, daughter of Johannes & Maria Elisabetha Ehmann.
The births of five children born to Johannes Wilhelm Simon & Maria Elisabetha Ehmann have been located in the parish register of Bieber: (1) Anna Maria, born 4 February 1749; (2) Anna Margaretha, born 11 July 1751; (3) Eva Katharina, born 18 July 1754; (4) Katharina, born about 1756, died 21 January 1764; and (5) Kaspar, born 22 December 1758, died 31 January 1759.
Maria Elisabetha Simon née Ehmann died 14 January 1759 at the age of 40.
Wilhelm Simon, a farmer, his [new] wife Katharina, and children (Anna, age 18½; Margaretha, age 17¼; Johann, age 9; Elisabeth, age 4) arrived in Oranienbaum.
It is not known what happened to this family after arrival in Oranienbaum.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Wilhelm Simon came from the German region of Mainz.
(2) The births of three children born to Johannes & Elisabetha Simon have been located in the parish register of Bieber: (1) Johannes, born 31 May 1753; (2) Franz Karl, born 22 December 1754; and (3) Anna Christina, born 1 November 1757, died 31 May 1759.
Johannes Simon from the area of Maynz [sic] & Juliana Weitzebach also from the territory of Maynz [sic] were married on 1 March 1766 in St. Mary's Lutheran Church of Büdingen.
Johann Simon, a farmer, his wife Juliana, and sons (Johann[es], age 14; Franz [Karl], age 13) arrived in Oranienbaum.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Kamenka on 20 June 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 89.
Johannes Simon and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Kamenka in Household No. Km065.
The death of Johannes Simon in 1834 is recorded on the 1834 census of Kamenka in Household No. 5.
[Franz] Karl Simon and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Kamenka in Household No. Km071.
The death of [Franz] Karl Simon in 1828 is recorded on the 1834 census of Kamenka in Household No. 133.
Valentin Simon, son of Karl Simon, and his family are recorded on the 1834 census of Kamenka in Household No. 133.
Peter, Thomas, and Josef Simon, sons of Valentin Simon, from Kamenka and their families are recorded on the 1857 census of Josefstal in Household No. 48.
Franz Karl Simon, son of Karl Simon, and his family are recorded on the 1834 census of Kamenka in Household No. 73.
[Franz] Karl Simon, son of Franz Karl Simon, from Kamenka and his family are recorded on the 1857 census of Josefstal in Household No. 52.
Johann Adam Simon, younger brother of [Franz] Karl Simon, is recorded on the 1798 census of Kamenka in Household No. Km071.
Adam Simon from Kamenka is recorded on the 1811 census of Neu-Kolonie in Household No. 23 along with a note that he had arrived in Neu-Kolonie from Kamenka in 1803.
Both the Oranienbaum passenger list and the 1767 census record that Johann Simon came from the German region of Mainz.
- 1811 Neu-Kolonie Census (Household No. 23).
- 1834 Kamenka Census (Households No. 5, 73, 75, 132, 133, 134).
- 1857 Josefstal Census (Household No. 48, 52).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 29.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 227.
- 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): Km065, Km071, Km095.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): #355.
- Parish register of Bieber (Biebergemünd).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 239.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1608, #1613.
Brent Mai
Anonymous2