Alexander Pappenheim, son of Johann Heinrich Pappenheim & Maria Agatha Seitz, was born on 1 August 1734 and baptized on 4 August 1734 in the Reichelsheim Lutheran Church near Odenwald. He married Anna Eva Sambert, and they had a son, Johann Georg who was born on 23 August 1759 and baptized on 24 August 1759 in the Gross-Bieberau Lutheran Church, a short distance from Reichelsheim.
Alexander, his family, and Johann Wilhelm Vogel, their servant, immigrated to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein), departing from Altona in the Duchy of Holstein on 26 May 1761 under the leadership of Matthias Lohrer. They arrived in the city of Schleswig, Duchy of Schleswig, on 30 May 1761. At some point during 1761 a new baby was born - Anna Elisabetha. They lived in Denmark until 1 May 1765, when they immigrated to Russia.
The Alexander Pappenheim family, without Johann Wilhelm Vogel, arrived in the Volga German colony of Dönhof on 21 July 1766, and they are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 18. Alexander and his son Johann Georg are recorded in Dönhof on the 1798 census in Households No. Dh89 & Dh96 respectively.
- 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).
- Parish records of Reichelsheim (LDS Film No. 1195016).
- Parish records of Gross-Bieberau (LDS Film No. 1190548).
- Parish records of Reichenbach (LDS Film No. 1195075).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 345.
- Eichhorn, Alexander; Eichhorn Jacob & Mary. The Immigration of German Colonists to Denmark and Their Subsequent Emigration to Russia in the Years 1759-1766 (Deiningen: Steinmeier, 2012): 262, 544 & 667.