Johann Nikolaus Dorsch was born about 1743 in Breitenbrunn, southeast of Höchst im Odenwald. He immigrated to Russia. At the immigrant gathering point in Büdingen, he married on 30 June 1766 to Anna Margaretha Eichmann, the presumed sister of Johann Michael Eichmann who also got married that same day.
They arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 15 September 1766 aboard the snow brig Die Frau Dietrika under the command of skipper Joachim Friedrich Luhn. They arrived in the Volga German colony of Schwab on 12 September 1767. With them was one-year-old son Johann Michael. They are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 36.
Nikolaus Dorsch had died by the time that the 1798 Census of Schwab was taken. His widow had remarried a Ludwig Gross, and they are recorded there in Household No. Sb30. Son Johann Michael is recorded in Household No. Sb44.
Gieg, Ella. Auswanderung aus dem Odenwaldkreis Band 1 (Lutzelbach, Germany: Gieg, 1988): 94.
Gieg, Ella. "Neue Erkenntnisse zur Auswanderung nach Russland 1766" (Rimhorn: E. Gieg, 2007).
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).
Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): 100.
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 135.
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 385.