Johannes Waldschmidt, son of Johann Ludwig Waldschmidt & Anna Catharina Steinmüller, was born 23 July 1742 in Fellingshausen (today part of the Biebertal area) in Oberhessen. He was baptized 27 July 1742 in Rodheim am Bieber.
Johannes immigrated to Russia, arriving in Boisroux on 17 August 1767. He is recorded there on the 1767 Census in Extra Household No. 43 along with wife Elisabeth (age 25).
At some point (probably 1768), he relocated to Meinhard where he is recorded there on the 1798 Census in Household No. Mn16 with new wife Eleanora Döring (age 31) who was from Katharinenstadt.
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).
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 427.