The Aqua family moved from Italy to Germany before 1750 and settled in the village of Hattersheim, today part of metropolitan Frankfurt directly across the Main River (northwest) from the Frankfurt Airport.
Johann Peter Aqua, son of Antoni Josephi & Petronella Aqua of Italy, married on 12 October 1750 in the Catholic Church of the neighboring village of Hochheim to Maria Anna Weninger, daughter of Johann Georg Weninger & Maria Elisabetha Keim. Maria Anna had been baptized in the same church in April 1724. They had a number of children, all baptized in this same church, including: (1) Apollonia, born 27 June 1751 & baptized 28 June 1751; and (2) Johann Baptist, born & baptized on 24 June 1753. Their other children all appeared to have died before immigration.
The Aqua family immigrated to Russia, sailing from the port of Lübeck aboard the galliot Der Jan with skipper Markus Dragun at the helm, and arriving at the Russian port of Oranienbaum on 14 September 1766. They arrived in the Volga German colony of Keller on 5 September 1767 where they are recorded on the 1767 Census in Household No. 64.
In 1774, Keller was destroyed by attacks from the nomadic peoples of the area, and the Aqua family relocated to the newly formed colony of Neu-Kolonie. They are recorded there on the 1798 Census with descendants in Households No. Nk27 & Nk45.
The family name has many spellings throughout the centuries and across the continents: Aqua, Acqua, Aqwa, Akwa, Akva.
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): 723 & 725.
Parish records of Hochheim (LDS Film No. 1270321).
Parish records of Hattersheim (LDS Film No. 1270177).
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 355.
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical Universiy, 2010): 360.