Johann Peter Hecht, son of Johannes Anna Eva Hecht, was babtized on 17 August 1725 in the Catholic Church of Rheindürkheim, 8 kilometers north of Worms. He married Anna Margaretha Esper, daughter of Johann Michael Esper, on 10 January 1757 in the same church.
They had five children baptized in Rheindürkheim: (1) Johann Georg, baptized 23 October 1757; (2) Maria Barbara, baptized on 16 October 1758; (3) Johann Peter, baptized 19 March 1760; (4) Maria Barbara (again), baptized on 22 March 1761; and (5) Anna Margaretha, baptized on 15 May 1763.
Several of the children died before 1766. Johann Peter Hecht and his surviving family emigrated to Russia, departing from Lübeck by the galliot Die Fortuna with skipper Peter Stahl at the helm. They arrived at the Russian port of Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766.
The Hecht family settled in the Volga German colony of Göbel on 20 June 1767 where they are recorded on the 1767 Census in Household No. 04.
On the 1798 Census, son Johannes is still living in Göbel , recorded in Household No. Gb43. Daughter Susanna moved to Pfeifer in 1792 and is recorded there in 1798 in Household No. Pf18.
- 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 Rheindürkheim (LDS Film No. 996678).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 38.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 162.