Conrad Wentzel (son of Johannes Wentzel) was baptized in Niedermittlau on 8 July 1703. Conrad is described as widowed when he marries Catharina Philippina Rösch in Niedermittlau on 28 August 1732. Catharina Philippina (daughter of Conrad Rösch and Elisabetha Closerman) was born 11 January and baptized 14 January 1703 in Niedermittlau. The death record of Conrad Wentzel's first wife was not found in the Niedermittlau records. Conrad and Catharina Philippina had a number of children before she died on 3 December 1762. Among these children was Catharina Elisabetha born 23 March and baptized 25 March 1734 in Niedermittlau. Catharina Elisabetha married Johann Heinrich Strott.
Johann Peter Wentzel (son of Conrad Wentzel) and Anna Maria Weingartner married in Niedermittlau 1 October 1761. Anna Maria was born in Gondsroth 10 July and baptized 26 July 1739 and was the daughter of Wilhelm Weingartner and his wife Maria Elisabetha Semel. Peter's baptism record was not found in the Nidermittlau parish records. Peter and Anna Maria had three children in Niedermittlau: Johann Conrad, born 16 February and baptized 19 February 1764; Johann Heinrich, born 29 July 1767 (died an hour after baptism); and Anna Elisabetha born 18 September and baptized 25 September 1768.
In 1772 Johann Peter Wentzel and his family, Johann Heinrich Strott and his family, and Conrad Wentzel emigrated to Russia. During the journey to the Volga settlements Anna Maria gave birth to a son on 21 August 1772. They settled in Pobochnaya in 1773. Sometime between 1773 and 1775, Johann Peter’s wife Anna Maria and his children must have died, and he moved to the Balzer colony where he is listed on the 1775 census with a new wife Margaretha and a young daughter Elisabeth, age 1 year.
Peter Wenzel's widow and children are still living in Balzer in 1798, reported on the census there in Household #28.
It is not clear from the available records exactly how Peter Wentzel and Catharina Elisabeth Wentzel are related.
- Parish records of Niedermittlau (including Meerholz, Hailer, Neuenhasslau and Gondsroth) on Archion.de
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Einige Kapitel aus der Geschichte des Kolonisationsprojekts von Katharina II. 1763-1775 (Moscow: Andreas Idt, Georg Rauschenbach, 2021): pp. 393 and 408
- Rye, Richard, translator. 1772 and 1798 Census of Pobochnaya (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1995)
- Rye, Richard, translator. 1775 and 1798 Census of Balzer (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1995)
- 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): Volume 1, p. 258-259
