Johann Sebastian Haffner, son of Sebastian Haffner & Margaretha, was baptized on 26 March 1715 in the Johannes Evangelical (St. John's Lutheran) Church in Münchingen, which is between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, in Baden-Württemberg. He married first Katharina Maurer, daughter of Johann Maurer, on 10 November 1739 in Münchingen. They had a daughter, named Margaretha, who was born 2 September 1745 and baptized on 3 September 1745 in Münchingen.
Johann Sebastian's second wife is Maria Lotholtz, daughter of Hans Martin & Margaretha Lotholtz, who had been born on 27 August 1718 in Ellmendingen, also between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart. They had two sons: (1) Johann Friedrich, born in Jan 1750 in Ellmendingen; and (2) Bernhard, born in 1760.
Johann Sebastian Haffner and his family immigrated to Denmark, departing from Altona, Duchy of Holstein, on 29 June 1761 with a group under the leadership of Thomas Gabler. They arrived in the city of Schleswig, Duchy of Schleswig, on 4 July 1761.
The Haffners lived in Denmark until 02 Jun 1764, when they departed to the Volga German colonies in Russia. They arrived in Shcherbakovka on 15 June 1765, and are recorded there in 1767 census in Household No. 23. On the 1798 Census, descendants of this Haffner family can still be found in Shcherbakovka in Households No. Sv01 & Sv52.
- Eichhorn, Alexander. The immigration of German colonists to Denmark and their subsequent emigration to Russia in the years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Steinmeier, 2012): 270, 428 & 684.
- 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).
- Parish records of Ellmendingen (LDS Film No. 1238357).
- Parish records of Münchingen (LDS Films No. 1056691 & 1056692).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Nordost-Institut, 2008): 251.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 83.