Johann Bernhardt Sorg, son of Peter & Anna Elisabetha Sorg, was born on 24 August 1742 and baptized on 26 August 1742 in the Evangelical Church in Gross-Zimmern, 10 kilometers east of Darmstadt. He married Anna Margaretha Abel on 5 July 1763 in the same church. Anna Margaretha, daughter of Michael & Anna Elisabetha Abel, had been born on 27 August 1733 in Litzelsachsen and baptized on 30 August 1733 in the Evangelical Reformed Church in Bad Dürkheim, about 20 kilometers west of Mannheim.
Johann Bernhardt Sorg & his wife emigrated to Russia, departing from Lübeck aboard the Russian galliot Citadel under the command of Grigory Bukharin, and arriving at the Russian port of Oranienbaum on 11 August 1766.
Johann Bernhard Sorg and his wife Anna Margreta are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
They arrived in the Volga German colony of Dönhof on 18 June 1767 where they are recorded on the 1767 Census in Household No. 105.
Widower Johann Bernhardt is recorded along with his family on the 1798 Census in Dönhof in Household No. Dh045.
- Franze-Merlau, Christel Hechler. Familienbuch Groß-Zimmern (Roßdorf: Christel Franze-Merlau, 2016): 1334.
- 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): Dh045.
- Parish records of Groß-Zimmern (LDS Film No. 1190553).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 370.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical Universiy, 2010): #5232.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #2145-2146.
Corina Hirt
Brent Mai