Johann Ussenger was born about 1741 in Eichelhain, southwest of Lauterbach. On his way to Russia, he married on 26 May 1766 in Büdingen to Anna Elisabeth Eifert from Rebgeshain.
They arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum on 9 August 1766 on the Russian galliott Strelna under the command of Lieutenant Sornev. They arrived in the colony of Müller on 16 August 1767, and are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 19.
Johann's widow (a second wife) and his children are recorded in Müller on the 1798 Census in Household No. Ml12. The name Usinger seems to be more common for the descendants of this family today.
Die Geschichte der Wolgadeutschen vom Vogelsberg zur Wolga(Alsfeld, Wiesbaden: Die Albert-Schweitzer-Schule, 1990).
Hessisches Staat Archive, Signatur F27 A 23/46.
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).
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): 90.
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005): 179.
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): Document No. 4973.