Johann Valentin Jäckel, son of Johann Adam & Anna Margaretha Jäckel, was born in Wald-Michelbach (west of Weinheim in Hessen) on 19 April 1720. He married in Wald-Michelbach on 17 January 1751 to Anna Margaretha Hihs, daughter of Valentin Hihs. She had been born on 3 September 1725. They had five known children, each baptized in Wald-Michelbach: (1) Johannes, on 26 July 1751, died before 1766; (2) Johann Valentin, on 12 December 1753; (3) Anna Margaretha, on 24 June 1756; (4) Johann Nicolaus, on 25 July 1759; and (5) Eva Magdalena, on 8 May 1766.
Anna Margaretha died in either Denmark or in route to Russia because on 16 April 1766, Valentin married Barbara Heizenröder in Lübeck before boarding the ship to sail for Russia.
Johann Valentin Jäckel and his family immigrated to Russia, departing from Lübeck by a ship with the skipper Heinrich Sager. They arrived in Oranienbaum on 12 September 1766.
The family settled in Beideck . Son Johann Valentin is recorded there on the 1798 Census in Household No. Bd35. Son Johann Nicolaus is listed in Household No. 40. Daughter Anna Margaretha is registered in Household No. 43. Daughter Eva Magdalena moved in 1790 to Dinkel where she is recorded in Household No. Dn25.
- Lang, Gerhard. German Colonists of Denmark on the Volga .
- Mai, Brent Alan and Dona Reeves-Marquardt, German Migration to the Russian Volga (1764-1767) (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2003): 16.
- Parish records of Wald-Michelbach (LDS Film No. 1340338).
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 398.