The parish records of Hitzkirchen record that Johann Heinrich Weber, son of Johann Heinrich Weber from Wenings, and Anna Maria Reifschneider were married in Kefenrod on 2 May 1759. The baptisms of two of their children (both born in Kefenrod) are recorded in the parish register of Hitzkirchen: (1) Johann Ludwig, baptized 27 November 1760; and (2) Johannes, baptized 21 July 1764.
Johann Heinrich Weber, his wife Anna, and children (Johannes, age 6; Johann, age 2) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard the barque named Fortitudo under the command of Skipper John Scott.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Norka on 18 August 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 26.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Johann Heinrich Weber is a joiner while the 1767 census records that he is a farmer. Both documents record that Johann Heinrich Weber came from the German district of Isenburg.
Still to be determined is how the two other Weber settlers in Norka documented to have come from Wenings (Anna Maria Weber, wife of Hans Otto Müller, and Johannette Catharina Weber, wife of Johannes Eberling) are related to Johann Heinrich Weber.
- 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): Nr002, Nr088.
- Parish register of Hitzkirchen (Archion.de).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 235.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3705.
Maggie Hein
Steve Schreiber
Brent Mai