Matthias Schmidt was married in Kork, Hesse-Darmstadt, on 24 June 1761 to Barbara Wegel, daughter of Jacob Wegel & Barbara Lutz. She had been born in Kork on 13 December 1738.
Matthias and Barbara had 2 children, each born and baptized in Kork: (1) Johann Jacob (born 9 February 1763 & baptized 11 February 1763, died 8 April 1763) and (2) Elisabeth (born 13 March 1764 & baptized 14 March 1764).
On 28 March 1736 the lands of Hanau-Lichtenberg (including Kork) were inherited by the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. The region around Kork was commonly known as Hanauerland. As part of Germany's administrative reorganization in 1971, Kork became part of the municipality of Kehl in what today is the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
Matthias Schmidt and his family immigrated to Russia departing from the port of Lübeck on board a Russian packet-boat under the command of Lieutenant Makkensy. They arrived at the port of Oranienbaum on 22 July 1766. They arrived in the colony of Dietel on 1 July 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 10.
Matthias Schmidt is recorded on the 1798 Census of Dietel in Household No. Dt47.
- 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).
- Parish records of Kork (LDS Film No. 1189656, 1189657, 1189658, & 1189662).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 283.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 170.