Johann Christian Debus, son of Johann Friedrich Debus and Maria Wilhelmina "Wilhelmina" Moritz, was born in Kölschhausen on 17 September 1741. He married there on 8 February 1763 to Anna Tröster, daughter of Johann Peter Tröster & Anna Barbara Freund. She was born on 7 December 1739 in nearby Niederlemp.
In Niederlemp, they had two children: Johann Peter (born 14 January 1762, before they were married) & Johannes (born 20 January 1764).
The family of four arrived in Oranienbaum 8 August 1766 from Lübeck aboard a ship under the command of Skipper Wiebe Heinrichson. They had arrived in Kukkus on 26 June 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 3. They were traveling with Christian's sister Anna Elisabeth and her husband Johann Heinrich Götz who are recorded in Household No. 2.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 464.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 231.
- Witzel, Karl-Heinz. Ortsfamilienbuch Kölschhausen, Dreisbach, Niederlemp, Breitenbach und Bechlingen ( online )