Denmark/Germany Place Name Identification

[Duncan Bennie]

Hi everyone, one of my ancestors who came to South Africa was listed as being from "Gron Diep (Gron Kanaal), Denemarke" this is obviously a Dutch version of some name for a place or region. He arrived in the Cape colony as a soldier/mercenary for the Dutch East Indian Company in in the 1720's so at the time Schleswig-Holstein was still part of Denmark, so it could be that the area/place is their and now part of Germany, but the Company tended to record the place of origin as Holstein if that was the case, so it is more likely to be in what is now Denmark if I am correct, any information in this regard would be much appreciated.

[KGarrad]

The only canal I know of in the area is the Kiel Canal, or it's predecessor the Eider Canal?
There is also the Gieselau Canal which connects the Kiel to the River Eider?

If we assume that full stops are missing, then a possibility is the Groningen Diepenring, the canal circling the Dutch city of Groningen?

[Duncan Bennie]

Thanks KGarrad, I also think that Groningen makes the most sense with reference to the name given, the reference to Denmark bugs me though but I have found no belief that any existing canal in then Danish territory could be this canal, so the only possibility that I can think of is that he was possibly a Dane in Groningen, or that the Danish reference was incorrectly recorded as such. Unless someone knows of any other Danish canals I think the Groningen possibility is the most likely. The likelyhood of him being Danish by ethnicity is possible as he also married a daughter of a Dane from Fyn who he met in the Cape, and the Danes tended to marry their own here in the first generations.

Thanks for the help 

[Brilau]

Gron could be the danish word grøn meaning green. There are more than 300 placenames in Denmark containing Grøn. One place is Grøngrøft in Ensted Parish, Åbenrå County just north of the german border. Grøft means ditch - a very small canal.
More likely is Grønsund, a narrow strait between the islands of Møn and Falster. It was a popular shortcut for sailing ships in those days, and probably well known among sailors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%B8nsund

Brian

[Rena]

I'm in agreement.

If you look at the land being fought over in the third "Northern War" mainly between Sweden on one side and Denmark on the other, with Russia and a few other countries taking sides and joining in.  It gives a clue as to which area of Europe was held by Denmark up to 1720.  The end result was that due to land being taken off Denmark it's population plummeted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Northern_War

Denmark held part of mainland Germany and it did start building a very large canal which could, at one time, be known as the deep - better known as the Kiel Canal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiel_Canal

The first connection between the North and Baltic Seas was constructed while the area was ruled by Denmark-Norway. It was called the Eider Canal, which used stretches of the Eider River for the link between the two seas.

[Duncan Bennie]

  Seems like this will be a permanent mystery. The record is a marriage record and lists his place of origin as such, why it is so vague alludes me. I doubt he would refer to his place of origin as a ocean passage cause if he was from one of those islands, he would have listed the island as his place of origin in the same way other Danish immigrants such as his father in law did . There has been mention before of a town called Grønbæk being the origin of Grøn kanaal, but I think this link is tenuous at best.

Thanks for all the input guys, I really appreciate it 

[Skoosh]

Southern Sweden was formerly Danish territory. (Skania?)

Skoosh.