Johann Adam Zinn appears in the Hussenbach 1798 census, age 45. That gives us an approximate birth year for him of 1753. He would have been around 14 years old in 1767. There are no other people with the surname Zinn in the 1798 census, there are no Zinn families on any First Settler’s List, and there are no Zinn families in the Kulberg Lists.
Johann Heinrich Zinn, from Grossenmoor, and Anna Kunigunda Quantzin, daughter of Johannes Quantzin, were married in Burghaun on 6 Jun 1747. They had three children: Anna Eva, born 21 Feb 1748; Anna Maria, born 22 Apr 1750; and Johann Adam, born 26 Jan 1753. Johann Heinrich Zinn died on 11 Jan 1756. Anna Cunigunda married Georg Goebel on 1 May 1759. Georg Goebel died on 15 Apr 1760. Anna Cunigunda then married Valentin Rommel on 16 Jul 1760. Valentin Rommel, Anna Kunigunda, and their children arrived in Russia on 16 Sep 1766. One of the children listed with them in the Transport List is Johann Adam, age 14. However, in researching the children of Valentin Rommel, there is no record of a son named Johann Adam. It seems reasonable to guess that Johann Adam “Rommel” is actually Johann Adam Zinn, Anna Kunigunda’s son from her first marriage.
- Parish records of Burghaun on Archion.de.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010) pp. 415
- Nakaji, Susan Hopp. Reconstructed First Settlers List for Hussenbach (Linevo Osero)
- 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), p. 529
