Johannes Georg Heusel, son of Georg Philipp & Maria Margaretha Heusel, was born on 30 December 1730 in Mümling-Grumbach and baptized on 1 January 1731 in neighboring Höchst. He married there on 28 November 1752 to Anna Barbara Haschert, daughter of Peter Haschert. They had two children, both baptized in Höchst: (1) Johann Leonhard (born 29 September 1756, baptized 30 September 1756) and (2) Johann Wendel (born 2 November 1759, baptized 5 November 1759).
Anna Barbara died and Johannes Georg married in Höchst on 3 February 1761 to Maria Margaretha Morasch, daughter of Johann Morasch & Anna Eva Joachim. She had been born on 30 May 1735 and baptized in Höchst on the following day. Johannes Georg & Maria Margaretha had at least the following two children, both baptized in Höchst: (1) Johann Georg (born 4 April 1762, baptized 5 April 1762) and (2) Anna Eva (born 18 January 1765, baptized 20 January 1765).
The Heusel family immigrated to Russia along with Maria Margaretha Morasch's brother Johann Georg Morasch and several other families from Höchst and neighboring villages. They arrived from Lübeck at the port in Oranienbaum aboard the Russian galliot Citadel on 13 September 1766.
The journey from Oranienbaum to the Volga German colonies was a rough one for the Heusel family. The mother and three youngest children died along the way. Johannes Georg and his oldest son Leonhard arrived in Frank on 1 September 1767, and are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 91 [the Pleve publication of this census errantly omits son Leonhard in this household]. Sometime before 1788, Leonhard moves to Kolb and is recorded there on the 1798 Census in Household Ko35.
- New Findings about the Immigration to Russia – 1766, by Ella Gieg, circa 2008 (translation by Richard A. Kraus)
- Gieg, Ella. Auswanderungen aus dem Odenwaldkreis Band 5 (Lützelbach: E. Gieg, 1988-1997): 260 & 268.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999).
- Mai, Brent Alan, trans. & ed. Transport of the Volga Germans from Oranienbaum to the Colonies on the Volga: 1766-1767 (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1998): entries 7227-7231.
- Parish records of Höchst (LDS Film Nos. 1193268 & 1193269).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 433.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 334.