The Stumpp version of the Yagodnaya Polyana First Settlers List states that the Befus family came from Storndorf. The Kromm version indicates that the three surviving Befus children came from Storndorf.
According to the Storndorf parish records, Johann Peter Beefuß and Anna Elisabetha Kraft married on 25 Jan 1753. They had the following children according to the Storndorf parish records: Anna Julianna, born 6 December, baptized 9 December 1753; Johann Conrad, born and baptized 12 March 1755 (died 24 January 1760); Johann Adam, born 9 January, baptized 11 January 1757; Johann Andreas, born 24 May, baptized 26 May 1761 (died 15 April 1765); Johann Heinrich, born 21 Aug, baptized 22 Aug 1763, and an unnamed daughter born 9 October, baptized 10 October 1765.
The parents and three children arrived in Russia on 15 Sep 1766. Johann Peter died at some point during the trip to the villages, and Anna Elisabetha married Johann Conrad Ruhl. The family is reported on the Yagodnaya Polyana First Settlers List, in Family numbers 52 and 52a.
- Family Search indexes of Storndorf parish records, FHL Film # 1195564
- Ober-Breidenbach Storndorf parish records on Archion.de
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): p. 386
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): p. 186
- Stumpp, Karl. The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862 (Lincoln, NE: The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia): p. 120.
- Kromm, Georg, translation of Yagodnaya Polyana First Settlers List published by Art and Cleo Flegel in “Research in Hesse”, American Historical Society of Germans from Russia Work Paper, Vol.XIII (Dec,1973)