Wen(t)zel (Walter)
Johann Nicolaus Wenzel, from Lissberg, and Susanna Müller, daughter of Johann Heinrich Müller, were married in Gelnhaar on 18 November 1760. The baptisms of two of their children are recorded in the Gelnhaar parish records: (1) Johann Georg, born 28 September 1761, baptized 30 September 1761; and (2) Anna Elisbetha, born 26 June 1765, baptized 28 June 1765.
Susanna also had an earlier illegitimate child, Wÿgand, who was born on 28 December 1757, and baptized on 4 January 1758 - also in Gelnhaar. The baptismal entry records that the father is Johann Heinrich Beck, son of Johann Ehrhard Beck. Even though the record also notes that Johann Heinrich Beck denied this paternity, Wÿgand and his descendants used the surname of Beck in later records.
It is not clear when the two Wenzel children died, but they are not listed when the family arrived in Russia. Johann Nicolaus, Susanna, and Wÿgand (Beck) arrived in Russia on 15 September 1766 aboard the snow-brig Die Frau Dietrika under the command of Skipper Joachim Friedrich Luhn. They settled in the Volga German colony of Walter on 10 September 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 91.
- 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): Wt046.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 315.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #6076.
Maggie Hein
Gelnhaar register recording the marriage of Johann Nicolaus Wenzel and Susanna Müller on 18 November 1760.
Source: Maggie Hein.
Gelnhaar register recording the birth of Wÿgand (Beck) on 28 December 1758.
Source: Maggie Hein.