Johann Jacob Ochsenhirt (son of Sebastian Henrich Ochsenhirt and Anna Margaretha Reichard), was baptized in Düdelsheim on 12 June 1729. He was married there on 24 February 1752 to Maria Elisabeth Eyring (daughter of Johannes Eyring of Bruderdiebacher Hof). They had nine children all born in Büches, Isenburg: Anna Catharina Dorothea baptized 5 July, 1749, Anna Catharina baptized 14 October 1753, Johann Adam baptized 26 August 1755, Maria Catharina baptized 25 July 1757, Catharina baptized 12 February 1758, Johann Jacob baptized 27 January 1760 (died, buried 19 March 1760), Johannes baptized 15 March 1761 (died, buried 1 July 1761), Catharina Elisabetha baptized 19 November 1762, and Wilhelmina baptized 9 February 1766.
The family arrived in Russia on 4 July 1766 aboard the ship “Love and Unity”. Jacob Ochsenhirt is listed as a shoemaker from Isenburg and of the Reformed faith. With him is his wife, Maria and children: Johann, age 11, Catharina, age 13, Elisabetha, age 3, and Wilhelmina, age ½.
Only two of these children survived to settle with their father in Messer: Johann Adam and Anna Catharina. Prior to their arrival in Messer, Johann Jacob Ochsenhirt's first wife apparently died and he married Philippina Willmann, daughter of Hans Heinrich Willmann. Philippina was baptized in Düdelsheim on 30 May 1735. Philippina had previously married Johann Conrad Popp in the Reformed Church in Lübeck on 31 May 1766 and had arrived in Russia with other members of the Popp family on the same ship as the Ochsenhirt family.
The Ochsenhirt family is reported on the Messer First Settler's List in Household #36. Johann Jacob Ochsenhirt and Philippina Willman are still residing in Messer in 1798 and are reported there in Household #23 on the 1798 Census.
The Ochsenhirt and Raab ( Balzer ) families are first cousins, as their mothers (née Reichard) are sisters.
- Düdelsheim and Büches parish records researched by Wayne Bonner
- Decker, Klaus-Peter, Büdingen als Sammelplatz der Auswanderung an die Wolga 1766 (Büdingen: Geschichtswerkstatt Büdingen, 2009): p. 85.
- Decker, Klaus-Peter. Die Auswanderung von 1766/67 aus der Grafschaft Ysenburg-Büdingen nach Russland, p. 159.
- 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. 167
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766 (Saratov State Technical University, Saratov, Russia, 2010): p 126.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): p 140.
- 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), p. 715.
