Johann Christoph Utz, son of Johann Michael Utz & Maria Agnes Bohlinger, was born on 29 August 1716 in Feldrennach, Württemberg. He married in nearby Birkenfeld on 28 January 1744 to Christina Barbara Ludwig, daughter of Johann Michael Ludwig & Anna Maria Dithiss (perhaps Dietz). Christina Barbara had been baptized in Birkenfeld on 22 July 1722.
At some point they moved to nearby Grünwettersbach where their children were born, among whom were Johann Jacob Heinrich (born 4 October 1746) and Johann Christoph (baptized 7 May 1755).
The family immigrated to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein) where they arrived at the city of Schleswig on 6 June 1761. Johann Christoph Utz died and widow Utz remarried on 8 April 1763 in the parish of Hohn (Rendsburg) to Joseph Uhl. They deserted the Danish colony later in 1763 and, along with her sons, joined the migration to Russia.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Dobrinka on 15 April 1765 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 52 [where Joseph's surname is mistakenly recorded as Utz, and Christoph Utz (age 12) is recorded as his son rather than step-son].
Jacob Utz and his new bride are recorded on the 1767 census of Dobrinka in Household No. 34.
Georg Peter Utz and his cousin Georg Adam Utz and their families relocated to the daughter colony of Neu-Weimar before 1857.
- 1857 Neu-Weimar Census.
- 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-1710, B-1719.
- 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): Db31, Db37.
- Parish register of Birkenfeld - LDS Film No. 1056797.
- Parish register of Feldrennach - LDS Film No. 1056809.
- Parish register of Grünwettersbach - LDS Film No. 1189469.
- Parish register of Hohn (Rendsburg).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 322 & 327.
Peter Aifeld
Brent Mai
Wayne Bonner