Johann Heinrich Bachmann was born in Unterhaun (at the time, Nieder Haun) on May 27, 1734, the son of Johann Andreas Bachmann, born in Obergeis, and Anna Cunigunda Deisenroth, born in Oberhaun. Johann Heinrich was confirmed in the Unterhaun parish church in 1748.
Johann Heinrich’s mother, Anna Cunigunda, died in 1741. His father, Johann Andreas, died in 1763.
Johann Heinrich married Christina Elisabeth Kehl on February 3, 1764, in Unterhaun. She was born on November 30, 1737, in Unterhaun, the daughter of Christoph Kehl, born in Unterhaun, and Anna Maria Reinmöller, born in Friedewald. Christina Elisabeth was confirmed in 1751. When they married, Johann Heinrich was a soldier serving in the von Gilsa Regiment under the command of Eitel Philipp Ludwig von und zu Gilsa.
Johann Georg, a son, was born in Unterhaun on June 14, 1764, and baptized on the 17th.
Lured by Catherine’s Manifesto, the Bachmann family and Christina Elisabeth’s sister, Anna Martha (Maria) Kehl (born May 9, 1748), set out as Russian colonists in the spring of 1766 and traveled with a transport group to the Baltic seaport of Lübeck. They set sail from Lübeck and arrived in Oranienbaum, Russia (now Lomonosov) on July 19, 1766, aboard the Russian pink “Novaya Dvinka” under the command of Lt. Ivan Perepechin.
After more than a year of travel, the Bachmann family arrived in the colony of Norka on August 15, 1767. Anna Martha is not listed in the household of Johann Heinrich and Christina Elisabeth in the 1767 Census of Norka. She may have died en route or married during transport to the colonies. However, a less-than-1-year-old daughter, Anna Martha, is listed with Johann Heinrich and Christina Elisabeth.
The 1775 Census for Norka shows three additional children in the Bachmann family: Nicholas, born about 1768; Georg Ernst, born about 1771; and Christina Elisabeth, born November 12, 1774. Another daughter, Cunigunda, was born about 1785.
Johann Georg Bachmann married Catharina Hohnstein, born about 1768.
Georg Ernst Bachmann married Catharina Weigandt, born about 1775.
Catharina Elisabeth Bachmann married Eckhardt Hölzer, born about 1769.
Cunigunda Bachman married Adam Michel, born about 1789.
Johann Heinrich died in Norka in 1802 at the age of 67. Christina Elisabeth died sometime after the 1798 Census of Norka.
Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelischen Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck - Kirchenkreis Hersfeld - Unterhaun, Hauna - Kirchenbuch 1714-1772 - Accessed on Archion.de
Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelischen Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck - Kirchenkreis Hersfeld - Friedewald - Kirchenbuch 1677-1716
Landeskirchliches Archiv der Evangelischen Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck - Kirchenkreis Hersfeld - Obergeis, Aua, Untergeis, Gittersdorf, Biedebach - Kirchenbuch 1663-1735
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): p. 248.
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Nordost-Institute, 2005): p. 232, Household 17.
Poten, Bernhard von, "Gilsa, Eitel von und zu" in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 9 (1879), p. 173-175 [Online version]; URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd136481000.html#adbcontent
Rauschenbach, Georg and Idt, Andreas. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766. (Moscow: 2019): p. 31, No. 36.
Rye, Richard, translator. 1775 Census of Norka (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1995): p. 11, Household 64.
Rye, Richard, translator. 1798 Census of Norka (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1995): p. 48, Household 67. [Note: Cunigunde’s age is listed as 18. It should be 13 based on the original census document.]
