The text for this page was last revised 30 September 2003 -- rak.
The Lutheran colony of Doenhof was founded 21 July 1766 by the Russian government. It's Russian name was Gololobowka or Gololobovka. The German has also been spelled Denhoff and Doennhof. Official population figures have been 384 (in 1769), 470 (1773), 870 (1798), 8330 (1912) and 5039 (1926) {Mai, vol.I, p.15}.
For the exact location of Doenhof, click on the Saratov Area Map.
In 1798 it was described as
"located in the Saratov Province, in the Kamyshin district, on the Bergseite, on a hill overlooking the Gololobovka Stream. It is 80 versta [a verst was slightly more than a kilometer] away from Saratov, 102 from the district city of Kamyshin, 12 from the neighboring colony of Grimm, 8 from Huck, 7 from Messer, 4 from Kutter, 30 from the Volga River dock (Mai, vol.I,P.84)."
To see the exact location click on the Saratov Area Map.
KRAUS
64. Johann Burghardt (1746-1778)
32. Wilhelm Christoph (1778-
There are two families of interest to my ancestry in the First Settlers' List presumably compiled in late 1767 and now published in Pleve, vol.I, pp.341-70.
Household #86 was Caspar 32 and Catharina 25 [her ages given in the 1775 and 1798 censuses are consistent which makes me think she was more like 21 at the time of the First Settlers' List --rak] Mechwart and three daughters ages 11, 8 and 2 and Caspar is listed as a Lutheran farmer from Wuertzburg having arrived in Doenhof on 18 June 1767 (Pleve,p.364). Upon questioning, Prof. Pleve is quite adamant that the family name is MECHWART, but cousin Brent Mai after thorough research on all Volga names for his 2-volume edition of the 1798 censuses consistently renders the family name MARQUART. I think cousin Mai is right.
In the 1775 Doehhof census (published by AHSGR) this family is household #4. Kasper is listed as 44 and Katarina as 29. Two daughters are still at home, ages 15 and 9.
In the 1798 Doenhof census (also published by AHSGR) this family is household #5. Kasper is listed as 69 and Katarina (nee KRAUS) as 53. Also in the household is daughter Elizabeta age 38 [this would be the daughter who was listed 15 in 1775 and 2 or 8 in 1767.
Kasper was listed as unable any longer to work, so the active head of household would have been Elizabeta's husband. He, is age 38 and is listed as Johann KRAUS from Zvonarev Kut [Stahl am Karaman] and this couple has 8 children ranging in age from 1/2 year to 21. Unless there is a older child, and that would seem unlikely since the 21 year old would have been born when her mother only about 15, it seems likely that this couple was married about 1777.
As is clear from the foregoing, the ages given in the census can be taken only as approximate. Based on his vast experience, Prof. Pleve says that the First Settlers' List ages are usually, but not always, more accurate.
That being the case, Elizabeta's husband surely is the Johannes KRAUS, brother of Johann Adam, Johann Kaspar and Johann Burghardt, listed as age 13 in the Stahl-am-Karaman First Settlers' List. That would indicate he was born about 1754 and was at least 44 (not 38 as it says in the census) in 1798 and 23 when married in 1777.
Putting all of the above together, I believe that Katarina KRAUS was Kaspar MARQUART'S second wife, that his first wife died during the journey to Russia, that the MARQUARTS were traveling in the group that included the KRAUS families from the Thuengen Barony, and that he married Katarina towards the end of the journey to Russia and before arrival in Doenhof so that his daughters would have a mother. I see no indication that Kaspar and Katarina ever had children of their own.
If Katarina was a Thuengen KRAUS, then she surely was sister or cousin to Johannes KRAUS who married her step-daughter Elizabeta and who was the active head of the MARQUART household in Doenhof by 1798. Johannes probably left Stahl to live in Doenhof either a year or two before or in 1777 when he married Elizabeta MARQUART.
Also listed in the 1798 Doenhof census is Kasper KRAUS, widower from Zvonarev Kut [Stahl am Karaman] 43, with 7 children ages 4 to 22, one daughter-in-law, and Kasper's mother-in-law, the widow Elizabeta BECKER 70.
This would be Johann Kaspar, brother of Johann Adam, Johannes and Johann Burghardt, listed in the Stahl First Settlers' List as age 16, thus born about 1751 and so probably really about age 47 in 1798, having married in late 1775 or 1776.
The BECKERs (as BAEKER) are in the Doenhof First Settlers' list, so Kaspar came to Doenhof for his bride. Evidently they lived for some years back in Stahl -- until his father-in-law either died or became too infirm to run his own farm, at which point, despite his wife having died, Kaspar moved to Doenhof to take over his in-laws' farm operation.
In the Doenhof First Settlers' List is household #56 Sebastian 49 and Elisabeth 40 BAEKER and five children ages 1/2 year to 19, all of whom arrived in Doenhof on 18 June 1767 (Pleve, p.356). There are four daughters. We know from the 1798 census that the youngest married a Detterer. We know from the 1775 census that by then the two eldest were either married or dead and no longer in the household. So Kaspar must have married the third daughter, Anna Elizabeta, age given as 6 in 1767 and as 14 in 1775, so evidently born about 1761.
So far, no trace of Johann Burghardt!
In the 1798 Schilling Census (published by AHSGR), we find household #3: Andreas HELMUT 36, his wife Margarita DEINES 43 from Gololobovka [Doenhof] and their two children ages 1 and 6; plus 3 children of Margarita's aged 11 to 18 from her deceased husband Joachim SCHULTZ; plus Margarita's son by her first husband Burghard KRAUS, Wilhelm 20 "who is living in Gololobovka [Doenhof] where he has been located since childhood and who has not produced his 3 ruble tax".
So Burghardt, my great great great grandfather, had married Margarita DEINES, my great great great grandmother, in Doenhof by 1778 when their son Wilhelm Christoph, my great great grandfather, was born. Burghardt had died before 1780 by which time his widow had remarried and probably moved to Schilling. She later married her third husband in Schilling while herson Wilhelm Christoph, according to the census, most of the time stayed in Doenhof, doubtless with an aunt and uncle KRAUS, or perhaps with his Deines grandparents.
Wilhelm ultimately married in Schilling and you can pick up his story there.
DEINES
130. Johann Georg (1722-aft.1798)
65. Anna Margaretha (1755/59-aft.1798)
The second household of interest to this genealogy in the Doenhof First Settlers' List (Pleve,p.370) is household #108: DEINES, Johann Georg 45 and wife Barbara Elizabeth 38 with 4 children ages 6 to 18 including Anna Margaretha 8. Georg was listed as a Lutheran farmer Darmstadt arriving in Doenhof on 18 June 1767. So these were my great great great great grandparents DEINES, together with my 3g grandmother Margaret, wife and later widow of Burghardt KRAUS.
They are listed in the 1798 Doenhof census as household #100: DANIEL (sic), Johann Georg 54, wife Elizabeta Barbara 47; sons Johannes 20, Johann Karl 5 [15 ??], Johann Jakob 3 [13 ??]; daughters Anna Margareta 18, and Elizabeta 16.
UNKNOWN
131. Barbara Elisabeta (1739-aft.1798) m. Johann Georg DEINES.
I do not know the origins of this lady. If anyone can help with that, please e-mail me at [email protected].
For a report on my visit to Doenhof, click on Doenhof 2001.
To go back to the Tree Index, click it. To get to other Ancestral Villages, click on them.