Johann Christoph Herdt, the son of Christoff and Anna Elisabeth Herdt, was baptized in Wolf, Isenburg on 17 December 1719. He married Anna Catharina Schröder, daughter of Adrian and Anna Elisabeth Schröder, in Wolf on 6 February 1744. Anna Catharina was baptized in Wolf on 8 February 1719. Johann Christoph and Anna Catharina had six children all baptized in Wolf: Johann Conrad, baptized 25 October 1744; Johann Heinrich, baptized 23 June 1747; Sophia, baptized 8 September 1750; Susanna, baptized 18 February 1753; Carl Friedrich, baptized 27 July 1755; and Jacobina, baptized 3 December 1759.
The family arrived in Russia on 4 July 1766 aboard the ship “Love and Unity”. Christoph Hardt is listed as a farmer from Isenburg and of the Reformed faith. Traveling with him are his wife, Anna, children Conrad, age 23, Johann, age 20, Carl, age 12, Sophia, age 17 ½, Susanna, age 15, and Jacobina, age 7.
Christoph, widowed, and his five younger children are reported on the Messer First Settler's List in household #62. Oldest son Johann Conrad and his wife Maria Elisabeth are reported in household #63.
There is another Herdt family on the Messer First Settlers List who came from a different town in the Isenburg region.
- Parish records of Wolf, FHL Film #1201845
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766 (Saratov State Technical University, Saratov, Russia, 2010): p 131.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): p 146.
