Jacob Klein (son of Johann Jacob Klein and Anna Dorothea Pflantz) was born 21 July and baptized 22 July 1721 in Becherbach. Maria Margaretha Fickkinger (daughter of Johann Adam Fikkenger and Eva Elisabetha Horbachs) was born 25 December 1721 in Becherbach. The couple married in Becherbach in June 1744. They had one child in Becherbach: Johann Jacob Klein, born 31 January and baptized 4 February 1745.
Jacob Klein requested permission to leave Becherbach in 1747 and migrated before 1750 to Pfalzheim in the Brandenburg region. Jacob Klein and his wife Maria Margaretha Fickinger had three children while they were living in Pfalzheim: Philipp Henrich, born 27 May 1750 (died 31 May 1750 in Pfalzheim); Susanna Margaretha Charlotte, born 25 October, baptized 1 November 1753; and Henrich Peter, born 28 September, baptized 3 October 1756.
The family emigrated to Denmark in 1762. The Eichhorn book reports that they arrived in the Danish colonies with 4 children. It appears that one of these children, Maria Margaretha Klein, was actually Jacob Klein's sister rather than his daughter, and was born in January 1736 in Becherbach. Maria Margarethat Klein married Adolph/Andreas Hinrich Zwingmann, and this couple settled in Messer.
While in the Danish colonies, Jacob's wife Maria Margaretha died on 24 March 1764 in Jörl Parish, Schleswig-Flensburg. Jacob then married Dorothea Simon on 28 August 1764 in Jörl Parish. Dorothea Simon was the daughter of Bernard and Catharina Simon, and was the widow of Michael Heitz/Heins. The Simon family had also travelled to Denmark. Dorothea Simon had been baptized 23 March 1735 in Oberderdingen.
In 1765 the Klein family left the Danish colonies and migrated to Russia. The elder Jacob Klein and his wife Dorothea had a son Johannes who was baptized in Lübeck on 15 May 1765. Johannes must have died during the journey because he is not reported on the Balzer First Settlers List. Jacob and Dorothea, two of Jacob's children from his first marriage, Dorothea's daughter from her first marriage, and their newborn daughter, are reported in Household #30 on the Balzer First Settlers List. The younger Jacob Klein and his wife Anna Barbara Heckmann are reported in Household #36 on the Balzer First Settlers List. Heinrich Zwinngmann and his family are reported on the Messer First Settlers List in Household #13.
- Parish records of Becherbach (on Family Search and Ancestry)
- Die Einwohner von Becherbach 1600-1900, Heimatkundliche Schriftenreihe der Verbandsgemeinde Kirn-Land, Genealogie im Nahe-Hunsrückraum, Band 21.
- Parish records of Oberderdingen
- Hacker, Werner. Auswanderungen aus Rheinpfalz und Saarland im 18. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, Germany: K. Theiss, c1987): p. 471
- Thode, Ernst. Palantine Migrations to Brandenburg and Pomerania (Penobscot Press, 2009): p. 48
- Parish records of Pfalzheim on Archion.de
- Lang, Gerhard. German Colonists of Denmark on the Volga
- Eichhorn, Alexander; Eichhorn Jacob & Mary. The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Steinmeier, 2012): pp. 294, 439, 476, 660, 661, 678
- Danish parish record extractions by Wayne Bonner and Mike Meisinger
- Parish records of Lübeck, FHL Film #326,264
- 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): p. 191
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): pp. 80 and 81
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Nordost-Institute, 2005): p. 134
