Jacob Holstein, son of Hans Jerg Holstein and Maria Eva Speckhmaier, was born in April 1738 in Schützingen (near Stuttgart).
He immigrated to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein), departing the processing site in Altona on 13 July 1761. At that point, he is recorded as a servant to Rosina Erst and her mother, Sabina Margaretha Amüller.
Jacob married in Handewitt (Schleswig-Holstein) on 19 August 1761 to Elisabeth Barbara Wethmann from Mühlhausen an der Enz (also near Stuttgart). A search of the baptismal records of Mühlhausen an der Enz do not reveal any Wethmanns, but there is an Elisabeth Barbara Widmann born in March 1742 to Judith Schoch and a soldier Fridrich Widmann (who were were not married).
Jacob and Elisabeth Holstein were living in the village of Christiansheide (Schleswig-Holstein) prior to immigrating to Russia. They departed the Schleswig-Holstein colonies on 6 June 1763.
They arrived in the Volga German colony of Galka on 1 July 1765 and are recorded there on the census of 1767 in Household No. 16.
- Eichhorn, Alexander, Eichhorn, Jacob, and Eichhorn, Mary. The immigration of German colonists to Denmark and their subsequent emigration to Russia in the years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Steinmeier, 2012): 274, 395, & 452.
- Handewitt parish records (LDS Film #1198952)
- Mühlhausen an der Enz parish records (LDS Film #1184985)
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 2 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2001): 23.
- Schützingen parish records (LDS Film #1184996)