Johann Heinrich Hünergardt and Johann Georg Rühl arrived in Russia together as single men on 13 September 1766. They both settled in the village of Stephan, and the Stephan First Settlers List states that they both came from Helpershain.
Based on Johann Heinrich Hünergardt's age in the Stephan First Settlers List, there are two possible matches in the Stumpertenrod parish records. Johann Heinrich Hünergardt (son of Johann Adam Hünergardt) was baptized on 12 September 1743 and confirmed in 1757. Johann Heinrich Hünergardt (son of Johann Heinrich Hünergardt) was baptized 10 July 1745 and confirmed in 1759. Additional research will be needed to determine which individual went to Russia.
By the time of the 1798 Census, both Johann Georg Rühl and Johann Heinrich Hünergardt had died. Their widows and children are reported in adjacent households, the Rühl family in Household #8 and the Hünergardt family in Household #9.
- Parish records of Stumpertenrod (including Eckmannshain, Helpershain, and Köddingen) on Archion.de
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): p. 355
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): p. 226
- 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 2, p. 968
