Sebastian Meier, a farmer, his wife Elisabeth, sons (Johannes, age 3; Johann Georg, age 1¾), and stepson Johann Just [Wentz] (age 12) arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 12 May 1766 aboard the galliot Anna Catharina with the skipper Daniel Geier at the helm.
Sebastian Meyer [sic], his wife Eisabeth, sons (Johannes, age 4; George, age ½), and stepson Johann Jost [Wentz] (age 12) are recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Oranienbaum in 1767.
Johann Jost Wensen [sic] (age 12) is recorded on an appendix to the 1767 census of Katharinenstadt in Household No. 7 along with his stepfather Sebastian Meier.
It is presumed that Johann Jost Wentz settled originally in Wittmann since that is where his mother and stepfather settled.
Johannes Wentz and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Brabander in Household No. Bn26.
The death of Johannes Wentz in 1833 is recorded on the 1834 census of Brabander in Household No. 50.
The 1767 census does not record from where this family came.
- 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): Bn26.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 325.
Brent Mai