Johann Adam Hallstein, son of Hanss Georg & Maria Elisabeth Hallstein, was born on 23 December 1724 and baptized in Höchst im Odenwald on 26 December 1724. He married there on 23 November 1751 to Eva Maria Neff, daughter of Christian Neff. They have at least the following children, each baptized in Höchst: (1) Johann Peter (born 7 January 1753, baptized 9 January 1753); (2) Anna Margaretha (born 21 February 1754, baptized 23 February 1754); (3) Eva Maria (born 17 July 1756, baptized 18 July 1756); (4) Johann Adam (born 30 January 1759, baptized 1 February 1759); (5) Elisabeth Margaretha (born 7 April 1761, baptized 8 April 1761); and (6) Maria Barbara (born & baptized on 11 October 1763, died 23 October 1763). Eva Maria Neff Hallstein died, and Johann Adam remarried to Maria Barbara (surname unknown) and had one more son (Johannes, born 27 December 1765 & baptized 28 December 1765) before departing for Russia.
The Hallstein (later Holstein) family arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum aboard the Russian galliot Citadel on 13 September 1766. They settled in the Volga German colony of Yagodnaya Polyana on 16 September 1767, and are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 44.
Widow Maria Barbara is recorded on the 1798 Census of Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. Yp14 along with son Johannes and yet another son born after they arrived in Russia. Daughter Margaretha married Nicolaus Lust and is recorded there in Household No. Yp72. Daughter Eva Maria married Johann Koch and is recorded in Yagodnaya Polyana in Household No. Yp01. Son Adam married Maria Katharina Hoffmann and is recorded in Household No. Yp13.
- Gieg, Ella. Auswanderungen aus dem Odenwaldkreis Band 1 (Lützelbach: E. Gieg, 1988-1997).
- 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).
- Mai, Brent Alan, trans. & ed. Transport of the Volga Germans from Oranienbaum to the Colonies on the Volga: 1766-1767 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1998): entries 7225-7226.
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): 19.
- Parish records of Höchst (LDS Film Nos. 1193268 & 1193269).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 184.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 331.