Johannes Gräb was born in Windhausen and baptized there on 21 December 1732. He is the son of Johannes Gräb from Windhausen and Catharina Döring from Engelrod.
Johannes was confirmed in 1746 in Windhausen. He married Eva Catharina Freund on 19 February 1756. A son, Johannes, was baptized on 14 November 1757. A daughter, Anna Elisabeth, was baptized on 1 July 1760. Johannes worked as a shepherd.
The Gräb family sailed from the Baltic seaport of Lübeck aboard the Russian sailing ship "Cyrus John" commanded by Gabriel Poddubsky and arrived in Oranienbaum, Russia on 11 August 1766. Eva Catharina died en route to the settlement area on the lower Volga River. Johannes and his two children arrived in the colony of Stephan on 24 August 1767. They are listed as household 23 in the 1767 census of Stephan. Anna Elisabeth married Johann Heinrich Ebel.
A widower, Johannes remarried and had at least four more children. His second wife's name is unknown. Two of these children, Johann Georg and Elisabeth, later moved to the colony of Holstein. Elisabeth married Conrad Mälzer.
Dekanat Homburg - Groß-Felda parish records on Archion.de
Familiendatenbank Kirchspiel Groß-und Klein Felda, Kestrich, Windhausen und Schellnhausen on genealogy.net
Idt, Andreas and Rauschenbach, Georg. Auswanderung deutsche Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Second edition). Moscow: 2019. Page 33, No. 60.
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): Volume 1, page 492, Household Ho17. Volume 2, page 968, Household Sp06 and page 969, Household Sp12. Volume 2, page 1159, Mv2842.
Mai, B. A. (1998). Transport of the Volga Germans from Oranienbaum to colonies on the Volga 1766-1767. Lincoln, Neb.: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. Page A-8. Immigrant numbers 393-396.
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): Pages 355.
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): Page 225, Household 23.
