Johann Heinrich Eckhardt, born about 1747, immigrated to Russia with his mother, Anna Catharina. They arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 13 September 1766 aboard the hooker Die Jungfer Dietrika under the command of skipper Christian Korsholm.
Johann Heinrich's sister Elisabeth, her husband Nicholas Schneider, and their son Johann Wilhelm were also on this ship. In the German records relating to Nicholas and Elisabeth, it is recorded that she is from Steinbach, east-southeast of Giessen, and it is assumed that her brother is also from there.
Johann Heinrich arrived with his sister and her family in Kraft on 18 August 1767 and is recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 61.
Johann Heinrich Eckhardt's widow is recorded on the 1798 Census of Kraft in Household No. Kf35.
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 2 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 409.
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 362-363.