Johann Nicolaus Wacker was born on 5 November 1702 in Langenselbold, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, Hessen, Germany. He married Engel Repp on 15 April 1722 in Langenselbold. Engel Repp was born on 30 August 1703 in Langenselbold. She died there on 28 February 1762. Johann Nicolaus died in Langenselbold on 23 May 1775.
Johannes Wacker, the son of Johann Nicolaus and Engel Wacker, was baptized on 29 November 1733 in Langenselbold. Johannes married Maria Louisa Mörs on 6 February 1755 in Wolf, Büdingen, Hessen, Germany. Maria Louisa was born on 19 October 1727 in Büdingen, the daughter of Johann Jacob Mörs and Albertina Ernestina Forrel.
Johannes and Maria Louisa became the parents of four sons and two daughters, all born in Wolf:
1. Johann Heinrich, baptized on 12 January 1756
2. Ernestina Christina, baptized on 13 May 1757, died before 14 August 1766
3. Johann Christoph, baptized on 3 March 1759
4. Johann Michael, baptized on 3 May 1761
5. Anna Maria, baptized on 27 November 1762, died before 14 August 1766
6. Johann Nicolaus, baptized on 24 June 1764
Johannes, Maria Louisa, and their four sons became Russian colonists in 1766. They arrived in Oranienbaum, Russia (now Lomonosov) on 14 August 1766 aboard the ship Die Jungfer Frederika (The Maiden Frederika).
After an arduous one-year journey through Russia, the family arrived at the colony of Norka on 2 September 1767. It appears that Johann Michael died during transport to Norka. The remaining family members are listed in the 1767 census as household 195.
Two daughters were born in Norka:
1. Anna Maria, born in 1767
2. Eva Elisabeth, born about 1769
Maria Louisa died in Norka before 1775. Johannes remarried to Anna Maria Eckhardt from the colony of Kutter. Johannes died about 1821 in Kutter. His son, Johann Nicolaus (a widower) moved from Kutter to Norka in 1797 and he married Anna Maria Spady in 1798.
Conrad Burbach's Volga German Page
Parish records of Langenselbold accessed on Archion.de
Parish records of Wolf, Büdingen, Germany. Family History Library film 1201845 Items 3-6.
Idt, Andreas and Rauschenbach, Georg. Auswanderung deutsche Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Second edition). Moscow: 2019, p 33.
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 3. Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2005, p. 282.
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg. Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010, p. 361.
The 1775 and 1798 Censuses of the German Colony on the Volga, Norka: Also Known as Weigand. American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1995.
