Dear Mr. Robert Grenz,

                   Warm greetings from Saratov from Igor and Ljudmila Pleve.  We have prepared for you the genealogical study on the family of your ancestors from the Franzosen colony.  the family of Michael Grenz, b. in 1744, firstly settled in Holsten but not in the Franzosen colony.  That family could not settle in the Franzosen colony at once because that colony was founded by the settlers-catholics from France.  At the end of the 18th - the beginning of the 19th century frenchmen began to move from that colony to others because there was soil difficult to till in the Franzosen colony.

                     But at the same time some families (predominantly those who were short of land) began to move from nearby Lutheran colonies and settle down at those lands of the Franzosen colony which were vacant now.

                     The household of Michael Grenz was not poor, it was rather prosperous:  in 1798 there were 6 horses, 25 cows and bulls, 21 sheeps, 9 pigs, 10 geese, 15 ducks and 10 hens.  However, he has also moved from the Holsten colony to the Franzosen one between 1798 and 1816 but he took with him only his youngest children.  That is why the Grenz family had its development in the Franzosen colony only in lines of two sons - Matheas, bo. in 1804 and Georg Adam, b. in 1782.

                      Unfortunately documents on the Franzosen colony are preserved only to 1835 and we can only guess who namely from two men by the name Johann Jacob Grenz was your direct ancestor because there were boys with such name in both of two family branches in 1834.  We can not also be sure that you are not mistaken in the date of birth of your ancestor (you give us the date of 1835).  It is not impossible that only of two boys with the name Johann Jacob Grenz has died in 1835 (after the revision tale has been already recorded)  and another sone was born in the same year and he was named by the same name.  May be you are mistaken in the date of birth of your ancestor and it was 1828 or 1830 but not 1835.  It is clear only that your direct ancestor belonged to one of two families:  Mathias Grenz or Georg Adam Grenz.

                      As to the double occupation of Michael Grenz so it is not a mistake in one of the documents buti it is a confirmation of the fact that he was a carpenter in Germany (according to the J. Kulberg records for 1766)  and that in the Holstein colony he has to a mill and became a miller.       

                        With best wishes,

                                                             Igor Pleve