Johannes Welsch, son of Johann Jakob Welsch, was born in 1722 in Maulbronn, today in the northwest area of Baden-Württemberg. He married Maria Margaretha Kluge, daughter of Georg Balthasar Kluge, on 3 February 1750 in the Ölbronn Evangelical Church [today called Ölbronn-Dürrn]. She had been born in 1732.
They had four boys, each born in Ölbronn: (1) Johann Jakob, born 20 February 1752, baptized 21 February 1752; (2) Georg Adam, born & baptized in March 1755; (3) Johannes, born 1 February 1758; and (4) Christian Ulrich, born & baptized 29 October 1760.
Johannes and his family immigrated to Denmark (Schleswig-Holstein), departing from Altona, Duchy of Holstein, on 13 July 1761 under the leadership of Georg Hermann. They arrived in the city of Flensburg, Duchy of Schleswig, on 17 July 1761.
Johannes Welsch and his family lived in Denmark for three or four years. They immigrated to Russia, arriving in the Volga German colony of Schäfer on 6 August 1766 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 21.
Welsch descendants are recorded in Schäfer on the 1798 Census in Households No. Sf23 & Sf25.
- 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): 276, 642, & 683.
- 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 Ölbronn, Neckarkreis (LDS Film No. 1185000).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Nordost-Institut, 2008): 94.