Johannes Haag (abt. 1747 - 1818)

Born about 1747 in Isenburg, Isenburg-Offenbach, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Descendants

Died 1818 at about age 71 in Kutter, Balzer District, Saratov Province, Russian Empire

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Biography

Johannes Haag was a Volga German.

The Kulberg Book, consisting of reports by Ivan Kulberg, is a list translated by Igor Pleve of roughly 22,000 individuals who arrived in Russia in the spring, summer and early autumn of 1766. This is a primary Volga German research resource. The Kulberg Book includes the time period when the people emigrated from Germany to Russia, usually does not list the origin town but just the region from which the German family migrated, and seldom includes the village they went to in Russia. The book provides the whole family grouping and shows groups of families traveled together from the same origin location.

The historical region of Isenburg, Hesse, Prussia where the Haag family emigrated from was split between the Grand Dutchy of Hesse (the areas closer to Buedingen) and the Electorate of Hesse (the areas around Gelnhausen and Hanau.) This distinction is relevant when researching the church records because many records from the Grand Dutchy of Hesse parishes near Buedingen are on familysearch.org whereas the Electorate of Hesse parish records for Kreis Gelnhausen and Kreis Hanau are at the Kassel Archive Collection assessible through Archion.de.

German emigrants came from Isenburg, near Frankfurt, went to the port at Luebeck, a distance of about 300 miles. The voyage from Luebeck, Germany to Kronstadt, Russia took 10 to 11 days under favorable conditions — but in some cases it took 6 weeks. Once arriving at the port in Oranienbaum, next to St. Petersburg, the immigrants took the oath of allegiance, received their money rations and began an orientation program to learn about the Russian people and farming in Russia where the land and elements were more harsh than in Germany. Often it was too late for the long trip to the Volga region, so the immigrants stayed the winter until the spring thaw allowed for resumed travel. The settlers walked hundreds of miles until they reached a barge that crossed the lake and then began the long voyage down the river Volga to the village of Saratov. It took 8 to 9 months to travel, mostly on foot, from northern Russia to the new colonies in the south.

According to research by Brent Mai, Johannes Haag arrived from Luebeck at the port of Oranienbaum (later renamed Lomonosov) outside St. Petersburg, Russia on 8 Aug 1766. The Oranienbaum passenger list recorded Johannes Haag was single and a farmer while the 1767 census records he was noted as a craftsman or handwerker. Both documents recorded Johannes Haag came from the German region of Isenburg. Colonists were assigned to settlements according to their religious confession. Johannes settled in the Volga German colony of Kutter, on the west or bergseite side of the Volga River on 8 Jul 1767. Johannes was recorded there on the 1767 census in household 43. Kutter was noted as a Reformed Baptist settlement and as a Lutheran settlement on different sources; the Kutter church was grouped under the parish of Messer. Church records for the village Kutter are not available yet. Brent Mai stated the Haag surname has erroneously been translated as Haas and Hack by various sources. The spelling of Hoag, may have been the 1700s original spelling in Germany: the O would have had an umlat over it, making the A a long sounding letter.

According to research by Pam Wurst, in 1775 Johannes Haag (Haas) and his wife Barbara Hild, age 27 and 24 respectively, were living in household 43 in Kutter with their daughter Maria Barbara age 3 months. In the 1798 census Johannes and Barbara, age 51 and 49 respectively, were in household 65 in Kutter with their children Andreas 20, Georg 18, Anna Elisabeth 14, Margareta 12, Johannes 9, and Katarina 7. Their daughter Maria Barbara had married and was in household 47 in 1798 and married to Johann Heinrich Weitzel; Johann and Maria Barbara Weitzel were 25 and 24 respectively and had a daughter Maria age 6 months. In the 1816 census Johannes was 68 and Barbara was not listed so she was assumed to have died. The death of Johannes in 1818 was recorded in the 1834 census of Kutter for household 119.

Research in the Kulberg Book by Pam Wurst, the Kutter Village Coordinator in 2021, also showed two other Haag families immigrated to Russia from Germany in 1766, although the list does not include the village where they settled. The first family was Nikolaus Haag, a baker from Friedberg in Germany, with his wife Anna, and his mother Anna; they sailed from Luebeck on the ship Apollo skippered by Detlov Merberg on 29 Aug 1766. Next Michael Haag with his wife Barbara arrived from Luebeck on 15 Sep 1766 in a ship under the command of Fyodor Fyoforov; where Michael Haag lived in Germany or his profession were not included. There is no information currently available to tie either of these Haag families to our Haag line residing in the village Kutter, also known by the Russian name Popovka.

Sources

• 1767 Kutter, Saratov, Russia census
• 1775 Kutter, Saratov, Russia census, house 43
• 1798 Kutter, Saratov, Russia census, house 65
• 1816 Kutter, Saratov, Russia census
• Igor Pleve, Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 487.
• Igor Pleve, Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation; Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #3161.
• Maggie Hein, Belowesch Colonies: Suggested Sources for German Origin Research; Clues, American Historical Society of Germans from Russia; Lincoln, NE, 2019
• 1775 Kutter census, p. 8, entry 43, which included his wife and first daughter.
• 1798 Kutter census, p. 11, entry 65, 1 Nov 1798, which included his family.
• Brent Mai, 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Kt65.
• Brent Mai, Haag (Kutter), Volga German Institute, https://volga.domains.unf.edu/surnames/haag-kutter-0
• 1834 Kutter Census (household No. 119).
• Kutter, The Volga Germans, https://www.volgagermans.org/who-are-volga-germans/settlements/original/kutter
• Karl Stump, The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862, "The Stumpp Book," https://gfr.foxping.com/Emigration/Emigration%20from%20Germany%20to%20Russia.pdf
• Volga Germany Project, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Volga_German_Project
• Kutter, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Kutter