Johann[es] Speri [sic], a weaver, his wife Elisabeth, and children (Johannes, age 18; Elisabeth, age 15; Barbara, age 13; Reinhard, age 11; Peter, age 9) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 24 July 1766 aboard a barque named Georg under the command of Skipper Adam Bairnsfair.
Johann Speri, his wife Elisabeth, and children (Johann, age 18; Elisabeth, age 15; Barbara, age 13; Reichhardt, age 11; Peter, age 9) are recorded on the list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767 along with a note that wife Elisabeth and son Reichhardt died en route.
The parents died, and the children settled in the Volga German colony of Katharinenstadt on 3 August 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 226.
Johann Spory (age 26) and his sister Elisabeth (age 25) are recorded on the 1776 Katharinenstadt Grundbuch [Land Register] in Household No. 201.
Both the 1767 census and the 1776 Land Register record that the Spory [sic] family came from the Kanton of Zürich in Switzerland.
There are no known surviving male lines of this family among the Volga German colonies.
- 1776 Katharinenstadt Grundbuch [Land Register] (Household No. 201).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 33.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 321.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #4591.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #5976-5982.
Brent Mai