Balthasar Weber, son of Weygand Weber & Catharina Gerst, was born on 3 November 1718 in Nonrod and died in Erlau on 22 February 1786. He married 9 April 1739 in Frankisch-Crumbach to Elisabeth Margaretha Weber, daughter of Johann Philipp Weber & Anna Christina Conrad. She had also been born in Erlau on 14 March 1723 [some researchers record her birth on 28 September 1718, but that date appears to belong to an older sister with the same name who probably died as an infant] and died there on 3 February 1788.
Johann Balthasar Weber & Elisabeth Margaretha Weber have the following children whose births are recorded in Erlau: (1) Anna Maria, born 21 May 1740; (2) Johann Ludwig, born 9 May 1742, died 28 March 1814 [in Erlau]; (3) Anna Margaretha, born 13 February 1744; (4) Maria Elisabetha, born 1 September 1745, died 27 September 1745; (5) Johann Leonhard, born 12 March 1747; (6) Johann Adam, born 31 January 1749, died 27 October 1821 [in Frankisch-Crumbach]; (7) Elisabetha Margretha, born 3 May 1751, died 26 January 1825 [in Erlau]; (8) Anna Christina, born 17 November 1752; (9) Anna Eva, born 22 December 1754; (10) Johann Peter, born 17 October 1756; (11) Johann Georg, born 8 April 1760, died 7 March 1812 [in Reichelsheim]; and (12) Georg Balthasar, born 11 February 1762, died 5 January 1767.
Anna Maria Weber [child No. 1] had married on 6 May 1766 in Fränkisch-Crumbach to Johann Philipp Walter. Anna Margaretha Weber [child No. 3] married 24 April 1766 in Fränkisch-Crumbach to Christoph Lichtenberger. These two families arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 22 August 1766 aboard a galliot named Die Vergoldete Weintraube (The Guilded Grape) under the command of Skipper Joachim Hermann Andersen. Philipp Walter & Anna Maria are recorded along with Eva Weber (age 15) [child No. 9], and Christoph Lichtenberger & Anna Margaretha are recorded along with Christina Weber (age 16) [child No. 8].
These 4 daughters settled in the Volga German colony of Walter on 25 August 1767.
Johann Philipp Walter & Anna Maria Weber are recorded on the 1767 census of Walter in Household No. 41 along with Anna Maria's sisters Christina (age 16½) and Eva (age 15½). The 4th sister (Margaretha, age 23) is recorded in Household No. 42 along with her husband Christoph Lichtenberger.
In a paper entitled "A page from the Fränkisch-Crumbach Parish Church Book," 1911, No. 4, Pastor Theodor Mesinger published a list of families and individuals who had been recorded in 1766 by Pastor Cellarius in the cover of the church book. Over 100 inhabitants of this parish traveled to Russia. His list includes the following person: Johann Leonhard Weber, a single blacksmith.
Leonhard Weber [child No. 5 above], a single farmer, settled in the Volga German colony of Dönhof on 21 July 1766. He is recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 51.
Leonhard Weber is recorded on the 1798 census of Walter in Household No. Wt004.
The death of Leonhard Weber in 1821 is recorded on the 1834 census of Walter in Household No. 1.
Nikolaus Weber, son of Leonhard Weber, is recorded on the 1850 census of Walter in Household No. 232 along with a note that he had moved to Kolb.
The 1767 census records that Leonhard Weber came from the German region of Darmstadt.
- 1834 Walter Census (Households No. 1, 2, 238).
- 1850 Walter Census (Household No. 232).
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 34.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 819.
- 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, 2008): Wt004, Wt095, Wt096.
- Mesinger, Theodor. "A page from the Fränkisch-Crumbach Parish Church Book," 1911, No. 4.
- Parish register of Erlau (now part of the parish of Fränkisch-Crumbach).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 355.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 304.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6554, #6555.
- Wolf, Heiner. Ortsfamilienbuch Erlau. [Online]
Heinz-Otto Haag
Ella Grieg
Brent Mai
Clarice Gehrman
Entry from the parish register of Fränkisch-Crumbach listing the families who left for Russia in 1766 including Johann Leonhard Weber.
Source: Dominik Krämer.