Christoph Maier, son of Ulrich & Margaretha Maier, was born on 17 May 1732 in Eisingen, southeast of Karlsruhe. He married on 29 April 1755 in nearby Berghausen to Elisabeth Margaretha Reichenbacher, daughter of Jacob & Catharina Reichenbacher. She had been born on 26 March 1732 in Reichenbach. They had three known children, each born in Söllingen which is today a part of metropolitan Karlsruhe: (1) Margaretha, born 26 April 1754; (2) Georg Michael, born 15 june 1758; and (3) Johann Christoph, born 29 December 1760.
In 1761, the family moved to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein), settling in Amt Rendsburg. Two additional sons Mattias and Martin were born during their stay in Denmark. They disserted the Denmark colonies on 2 June 1764, and immigrated to Russia.
They arrived in the colony of Shcherbakovka on 15 June 1765 and are recorded there on the 1767 Census in Household No. 4. In 1796, the family relocated to the Volga German colony of Kratzke where they are recorded on the 1798 Census in Household No. Kr26. Subsequent descendants also settled in the colony of Franzosen .
- Eichhorn, Alexander, Jacob & Mary Eichhorn. The immigration of German colonists to Denmark and their subsequent emigration to Russia in the years 1759-1766 (Deiningen, Germany: Steinmeier, 2012): 521.
- 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): 614.
- Parish records of Eisingen (LDS Film No. 1256492).
- Parish records of Reichenbach & Söllingen (LDS Film No. 1238221).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 246.