Johannes Dornhecker from Altenmittlau, son of the deceased Peter Dornhecker, and Anna Maria Catharina Braun, daughter of Johann Wolfgang Christoph Braun from Neustadt on der Saale in the Diocese of Würzberg, married in Somborn on 1 June 1755. The civil registration of their marriage had been recorded in Somborn on 27 May 1755. Johannes and Catharina had three children in Altenmittlau: Maria Anna, baptized 24 July 1757; Sybilla, baptized 2 February 1761; and Matthias, baptized 12 September 1763 (died 1 March 1764). Catharina died on 23 September 1763. The widowed Johannes Dornhecker married Elisabetha Sommer from Gailbach on 25 Feb 1764. The civil registration of this marriage was recorded in Somborn on 1 February 1764. Johannes and Elisabetha had one child, Gertrud, baptized 22 March 1765 (died 16 April 1765).
Johannes Dornhecker from Altenmittlau appears on a list of colonists recruited from the Hanau region. A 2020 Heimatbuch article identifies him as a settler in Kamenka.
The family arrived in Russia on 9 Jun 1766. Johannes Dorndecker is described as Catholic and a farmer from Hanau. Johannes was accompanied by his wife Elisabetha and his daughters Maria Anna and Sibilla. They are reported on the Kamenka 1767 Census (First Settlers List) in Household #80 (with the surname mispelled "Dargener" in the published translation).
- Parish records of Somborn St. Anna, including Altenmittlau, Bernbach, Horbach, and Neuses, accesssed on Matricula Online.
- Zivilstandsregister, 1749-1757 and 1764-1769, Somborn (Hessen-Nassau). Bürgermeisterei; Staatsarchiv (Marburg), images on Family Search
- Government Report on the activities of Russian Imperial Emissary Facius, images obtained from Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg
- Stumpp, Karl. The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the years 1763 to 1862. (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1982), p. 125
- Horst, Irma. "Kommissarius Johann Facius und seine Kolonisten", Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland 2020, (Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland e. V., Stuttgart, 2020), pp. 259-265
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010) p. 125
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Andreas Idt, Georg Rauschenbach, 2019): pp. 29, 215
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): p. 236
