Friedrich Christoph Carl Ley, son of master baker Johann Heinrich Ley & Maria Dorothea Rühl, was born on 24 December 1739 in Gelnhausen, east northeast of Frankfurt.
Carl and his wife Anna immigrated to Russia, arriving from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 4 July 1766 aboard the frigate Love & Unity under the command of Thomas Fairfax.
The Lei/Ley family settled in Schilling and are recorded there on the supplement to the 1775 Census in Household No. 1. They are also listed on the 1798 Census in Household No. Sg061.
1775 Census of Schilling.
Frey, Julius. "Auswanderung aus den Kreisen Gelnhausen und Büdingen im Jahre 1766." Geschischisblätter Ürstadt und Kries Gelnhausen.
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).
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): Document No. 1669.