Johann Reiß (also Reis or Reiss) was baptized 24 June 1742 in Queckborn, the son of Johann Caspar Riess and Anna Maria Schneider. His godfather was Johann Sprankel, who also left for Russia in 1766.
Reis and his family immigrated to Russia, arriving at the port in Oranienbaum on 12 September 1766 aboard the frigate Love & Unity with skipper Thomas Fairfax at the helm. Travelling with him were his wife Maria, mother-in-law Anna, and brothers Johannes (age 17) and Conrad (age 12). Kuhlberg records that these two boys were his brothers-in-law, but that is incorrect.
The Transports List from Oranienbaum to Saratov records that Johannes Reis died on the way to the Volga, but his wife, mother-in-law, and brothers survived. The survivors arrived in Ernestinendorf on 3 August 1767. However, perhaps it was the mother-in-law who died in route to the Volga colonies as the 1767 Census of Ernestinendorf records Johannes along with Maria, his wife (age 20), and brothers Johann (age 18) and Conrad (age 15) living in Household No. 14.
Johann (the brother) and his family are recorded on the 1798 Census of Ernestinendorf in Household No. Er08. Brother Konrad and his family are recorded in Näb (Household No. Nb14) in 1798.
There is a Maria Katharina Ries, perhaps the widow of Johannes Ries, married to Heinrich Walker from Fischer and living in Fischer.
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 1097-1101.
Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 398.
Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): 342.