Johann Heinrich Götz, son of Johann Peter Götz & Anna Christina Pitz, was born 31 August 1736 in Kölschhausen (today in Lahn-Dill-Kries, Hesse), west of Giessen. He married there on 27 February 1759 to Anna Elisabeth Debus, daughter of Johann Friedrich Debus & Maria Wilhelmina "Wilhelmina" Moritz. She was also born in Kölschhausen on 24 January 1738.
In Kölschhausen, Johann Heinrich & Anna Elisabeth had at least three children: (1) Maria Elisabeth - born 2 January 1760; (2) Justina - born 13 October 1761; and (3) Johann Konrad - born 18 November 1763. The parents and these three children along with 1-month-old Anna arrived in Oranienbaum 8 August 1766 from Lübeck aboard a ship under the command of Skipper Wiebe Heinrichson.
The three younger children must have died on the trip to the Volga region, because only the parents and Maria (age 8) are recorded in Household No. 2 of the 1767 Census of Kukkus . They had arrived in Kukkus on 26 June 1767.
Christian Debus, the brother of Anna Elisabeth, and his family were traveling with them and are recorded in Household No. 3 on the 1767 census of Kukkus .
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 465.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 233.
- Witzel, Karl-Heinz. Ortsfamilienbuch Kölschhausen, Dreisbach, Niederlemp, Breitenbach und Bechlingen ( online )