Johann Heinrich Zimmermann, son of Wiegand Zimmermann, was born 19 March 1734. He married on 1 November 1757 in Burghaun to Anna Maria Ebert, daughter of the late Reinhardt Ebert of Gruben. They had four children according to the Burghaun parish records: (1) Johannes, born 16 August 1758; (2) Johann Adam, born 6 March 1762, died 17 August 1765; and (3 & 4) twins Johann Adam & Johann Heinrich, born 13 October 1765 (Johann Heinrich, died 7 December 1765).
Heinrich Zimmermann, a farmer, his wife Anna Maria, and sons (Johann, age 8; Johann Adam, age 1) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 18 August 1766 aboard the galliot named Die Perle (The Pearl) under the command of Skipper Gerhardt Hermann Thomsen along with a young woman named Anna Katharina [surname not recorded] (age 17½). She is recorded as a daughter, but her age makes her relationship to the other family members unlikely.
Johannes Zimmermann, his wife Anna Maria, and children [sic] (Anna Catharina, age 18; Johannes, age 8; Johann Adam, age 1) are recorded on a list of those being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767. [See comment about daughter Anna Catharina above.]
They settled in the Volga German colony of Hussenbach. Johann Adam Zimmerman moved from Hussenbach to Frank in 1788. The 1798 census of Hussenbach records widower Heinrich Zimmermann in Household No. Hs019.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Heinrich Zimmermann came from the German region of Fulda.
- 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): 780.
- 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): Hs019.
- Mai, Brent Alan, trans. & ed. Transport of the Volga Germans from Oranienbaum to the Colonies on the Volga: 1766-1767 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1998): 6919-6922.
- Parish register of Burghaun.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6245.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #8033-8037.
Maggie Hein
Sue Nakaji
Brent Mai