Johann Matthias Speldecker, a farmer, and his family immigrated to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein), arriving in the city of Schleswig on 20 May 1761. They swore allegiance to the Danish king on 24 July 1761. At that time the family included Johann Mattias (age 39), his wife Eva Christina (age 25), and children (Johann Jakob, age 6; Maria Christina, age 1). They were dismissed from the Danish colonies on 2 June 1764 and joined the migration to Russia.
Martin [sic] Speldecker (age 50), a farmer, his wife Eva Christina (age 30), and children (Maria Christina, age 7; Johann Heinrich [sic], age 4) are recorded on the 1767 census of Shcherbakovka in Household No. 17. They had arrived in Shcherbakovka on 15 June 1765.
In 1788, Friedrich Speldecker moved from Shcherbakovka to Holstein.
Friedrich Speldecker and his family are recorded on the 1834 census of Holstein in Household No. 14.
The deaths of Friedrich Speldecker in 1835 and his son Johann Adam in 1838 are recorded on the 1850 census of Holstein in Household No. 19.
The Eichhorn research records that Matthias Speldecker came from the German region of Württemberg. The 1767 census records that Martin [sic] Speldecker came from the German village of Obereisesheim.
There are no known surviving male lines of this family among the Volga German colonies.
- 1834 Holstein Census (Household No. 14).
- 1850 Holstein Census (Household No. 19).
- 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: Drukerei und Verlag Steinmeier GmbH & Co. Kg, 2012): B-1608.
- 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): Ho14, Sv26, Mv2769.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 249.
Brent Mai