Wigand Schäfer, the son of Johannes Schäfer and his wife Martha Elisabetha, was born 19 March and baptized 21 March 1714 in Langenschwarz. Wigand married Anna Margaretha Dörfling, daughter of Simon Dörfling, on 3 January 1737. This couple had three children, all born and baptized in Langenschwarz: Anna Catharina born 13 September, baptized 15 September 1737; Eva Elisabeth, born 2 July, baptized 4 July 1739; and Johann Andreas, born 16 Jan 1741, baptized and died the same day. Anna Margaretha Dörfling died on 29 January 1741. Wigand then married Anna Margaretha Hämelmann, daughter of Johannes Hämelmann from Wehrda, on 25 April 1741. This couple had two children, both born and baptized in Langenschwarz: Anna Margaretha, born 5 March, baptized 7 March 1742; and Johann Adam, born 7 May, baptized 8 May, died 9 May 1744.
Anna Margareatha Schäfer married Johann Georg Peter in Büdingen on 12 June 1766. Wigand and his wife Anna Margaretha, along with Johann Georg Peter, Anna Margaretha, and Johann George's brother Johann Peter, arrived in Russia on 14 September 1766. Wigand's wife Anna Margareatha appears to have died prior to the family's arrival in Walter. Wigand is reported with his new wife Eleonore and her daughter Elisabeth in Family #40 on the Walter First Settler's List. The Peter family is reported in Family #43.
- Parish records of Langenschwarz on Archion.de.
- 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. 93
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010) p. 405
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Nordost-Institute, 2008): p. 304-305.
