Jacob Bernhardt Kempf was baptized in Wildberg, Dekanat Nagold, Baden-Württemberg on 13 May 1736. He was the son of Johann Georg Kempf, a Zeugmacher (wool fabric weaver) and Hasenthorwarth (gatekeeper of the Rabbit's Gate) and his wife Susanna. After moving to Berlin to join his father, Jacob Bernhard Kempf, a Zeug und Rasch-Macher (fabric weaver) married Anna Maria Blum of Switzerland at the Friedrichskirche in Babelsberg, Potsdam, on 24 April 1764.. They had one child, Johann Jacob, born 13 January and baptized in Babelsberg on 20 January 1765.
The family of three arrived in Russia on 7 August 1766. Jacob Bernhard Kempf is described as a weaver from Württemberg.
The family members as reported in the Transport Lists are Bernhard Kempf, of the Evangelical religion, his wife Anna Maria, son Johann Jacob age 2 1/4, and daughter Anna Maria, age 1/4. Anna Maria died during the transport. A notation in the Transport Lists indicates that Bernhard Kempf was recruited on 23 April 1766 in Rosslau, Anhalt-Zerbst, by Captain Ichteritz.
They settled in Urbach and are reported there on the First Settlers List (1767 Census) in Household #55.
Bernhard Kempf and his family moved from Lipow-Kut (Urbach) to Swonarewkut (Stahl-am-Karaman) in 1788. In the 1798 Census of Swonarewkut, Jacob Kempf from Lipow-Kut, his wife Anna Kunigunda Markolf from Niedermonjou, and their children Johann Georg, Johann Caspar, and Catharina, are reported in Household #16. Bernhard Kempf from Lipow-Kut, his wife Susanna Maria Enders, their son Johann Michael and his wife and children, their son Stefan, and their daughter Maria Dorothea, are reported in Household #31.
- Parish records of Wildberg, Dekanat Nagold, Baden-Württemberg, accessed on Archion.de
- Parish records of Brandenburg/Berlin, Kirchenkreis Potsdam, Babelsberg, Friedrichskirche, accessed on Archion.de
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010), Entry #5221, p. 335
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Andreas Idt, Georg Rauschenbach, 2019): p. 33
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Nordost-Institute, 2008): p. 283
- RGADA (Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts in Moscow), Fond 283, Opis 1, Delo 117, pp. 276, 480 (Transport Lists)
- RGIA (Russian State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg) Fond 383, Opis 29, Delo 762 (1798 Census for Stahl am Karaman) and Delo 756 (1798 Census for Urbach)
