Johann Heinrich Beck was born about 1735 in Ortenberg (Oberhessen), northwest of Büdingen. His father was Johannes Beck, a forester in Heiken-Bergheim. Heinrich married Anna Catharina Küster, daughter of Johann Christoph Küster, on 11 July 1758.
The couple left for Russia in 1766 with their daughter Eva, age 9, and arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard the galliott Die Fortuna with Peter Stahl as captain. They settled in the Volga German colony of Stahl am Karaman on 10 June 1767 where they are recorded on the 1767 Census in Household No. 19
By the time that the 1798 Census was taken, daughter Anna Eva (age 41) was still living in Stahl am Karaman in Household No. Sk18 along with husband Daniel Krutsch and 5 children.
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).
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 196.
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 161.