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Samuel Grenz
As far as can be learned
from the information available so far, our
ancestor Samuel Grenz emigrated to Russia
about 1813 with his brother Gottlieb and
Gottlieb's wife Maria (or Mariana)..
One record (Stumpf book) indicates that
Gottlieb was from Starkey, Prussia (a city
that researchers have not yet been able to
locate). Samuel, Gottlieb and Maria
are initially found in the 1816 census of
Rohrbach in the Odessa area of South
Russia. In the census, Gottlieb was
27, Maria was 21 and they now have a
daughter Anna age 3/4. Samuel is
listed as being 16 years of age. (Alvina
Schurr in Canada who researched the Grenz
family at length and wrote the book "Grenz
von Gueldendorf" obtained a copy of
the Grenz family page in the Gueldendorf
Family Book from the Archives in Russian
and graciously shared it with me.
Samuel's birth date in the family book is
given as 1796, so the above age of 16 may
not be accurate.)
About 1820 or 1821, it
appears that Samuel and his family (I
believe he married Anna Elisabeth Rosina
Schuelke about 1818, probably in Rohrbach)
moved to Friedrichstal (established
about1819 in the Beresean District of
South Russia, along with Stuttgart and
Waterloo, about 65 miles North of the city
of Odessa, Ukraine.) Samuel's first
son Georg Adam Christian Grenz is born 20
November 1819 in Rohrbach, but the second
child Christoph Ludwig Grenz is born 10
April 1822 in Friedrichstal. The
next child Dorothea Grenz is again born in
Rohrbach 22 November 1824, and the last
child known is born 21 March 1827 back in
Friedrichstal.
In 1830, Samuel Grenz
and Gottlieb Grenz are listed among the
founders of Gueldendorf which was founded
from the colonies of Waterloo,
Friedrichstal and Stuttgart due to a water
shortage in the previous locations,
Samuel died in Gueldendorf on 18 December
1858.
I have not been able to
find any information about the parents of
Samuel and Gottlieb Grenz, or about the
parents of Anna Elisabeth Rosina Schuelke.
The records from the Russian Archives
indicate that Gottlieb Grenz was born in Zanhen (possibly Zangen-Lipno, West
Prussia - (a guess only), on the
25th April 1788 (probably south of
Bromberg) and married Mariana Sommerfeld
in 1812 (place unknown). Gottlieb
died 28 March 1844 in Gueldendorf.
The archives records indicate he was
confirmed in 1802 in Mohilne (also not yet
located). Most of the records later,
such as the death record indicate that he
was born in Prussian Poland.
Contributed by Christa Grenz |