Johann Leonhard Knödler, son of Christian Knödler, was married in Niederhofen on 21 November 1753 to Rosina Dorothea Weyhnacht (also recorded as Weinacht in some entries), daughter of Georg Adam Weinacht & Anna Maria Bricker. She had been born in Niederhofen on 4 December 1726.
They had a number of children in Niederhofen, among them being Elisabeth Magdalena (born 22 December 1754) and Philipp Michael (born 29 July 1760).
Johann Leonhard and his brother Gottlieb immigrated to Schleswig-Holstein (Denmark) in 1761. Leonhard left there for Russia on 23 Apr 1763. The family arrived with the group of immigrants who settled the very first Volga German colony of Dobrinka on 29 June 1764. The family is recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 15.
- Eichhorn, Alexander. The immigration of German colonists to Denmark and their subsequent emigration to Russia in the years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Steinmeier, 2012): 479.
- Parish records for Niederhofen - LDS Film No. 1184765.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 317.