Wittmann (Grimm)
Johann Martin Widmann, son of Martin Widmann & Maria Barbara Wegelin, was born 13 August 1754 in Schröck [today called Leopoldshafen]. [There is doubt whether this is the correct Martin Wittmann, because this one appears to have died in Germany in 1767 as a child.]
Martin Wittmann, his wife Maria Barbara, and children (Martin, age 6; Julianna, age 4) immigrated to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein) arriving in the city of Schleswig on 9 May 1761.
Martin [Sr.] died, and his widow remarried to Günther Thomsen. The combined Thomsen / Wittmann family left the Danish colonies in May 1764 and joined the migration to Russia.
They settled in the Volga German colony of Grimm and are recorded there on the 1775 census in Household No. 53.
Martin Wittmann [Jr.] and his family are recorded on the 1798 census of Grimm in Household No. Gm008.
The death of Martin Wittmann in 1831 is recorded on the 1834 census of Grimm in Household No. 71.
Georg Philipp Wittmann, Johann Georg Wittmann, and their families from Grimm are recorded on the 1857 census of Oberdorf in Household No. 46 & 55.
The Eichhorns record that Martin Wittman came from the German village of "Spöck [sic], Margrafschaft Baden-Durlach."
- 1775 Grimm Census (Household No. 163).
- 1834 Grimm Census (Households No. 71, 239).
- 1857 Oberdorf Census (Households No. 46, 55).
- 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-1806.
- 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): Gm008.
Brent Mai