Ferdinand and Frederick Grott - Danzig, Prussia

[didi55]

My Great, Great, Grandfather, Ferdinand Grott, was born in Danzig, Prussia in 1823/4.  His parents were Frederick Grott and Carolina Ross.  I know this information from the Scottish records, as Ferdinand was married and lived in Scotland from 1857.  Both Ferdinand and his father, Frederick, were listed as Ship Masters - I have Certificates of Competency for Ferdinand.

I would love to find Ferdinand's birth certificate, as well as his parents marriage details.  I would also be interested in finding out if there were any other children, brothers and sisters of Ferdinand.

I paid a professional researcher (I got his name from this site), who seemed genuine, but gave me only one useless piece of information I could have got myself from Ancestry and then I heard no more from him.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[black.betty]

I found something for you.

[black.betty]

I found a further information.

[didi55]

That's so kind of you Black.betty.  However, I have all of the information from the Scottish records.  Where I have come up against a brick wall is in the records from Prussia.  I know that Ferdinand went to sea at the age of 13 and worked his way up to become a Ship's Master.  I have his date and place of birth, but have no way (I don't think) of finding his actual birth certificate or record.  I only have the names of his parents (Frederick Grott and Carolina Ross), and have just guessed at their year of birth.

I would welcome any suggestions you have for accessing records from Danzig (now Gdansk, of course).

Regards

[didi55]

Ferdinand's date of birth was 19 June 1824 in Dantzic, Prussia.  He sailed on ships out of Dantzic between 1837 and 1844.  The names of the ships were Thomas, John Wilhelm, Carolina, Friedrich Wilhelm IV and Olivia (as far as I can tell from the handwriting).  For 8 months between 1846 and 1847 he was on a ship called the Amazone, registered to the Prussian Government.

Any further help on this would be so much appreciated.  Thanks.

[Skoosh]

Has the name originally been Scottish Groat? originally Dutch De Groot.

Skoosh.

[didi55]

No the name was definitely not Scottish.  He was definitely born in Dantzic/Danzig and his first ship was from there at the age of 13.

[Skoosh]

didi, Scottish emigration into Poland in the 17th century was immense, Danzig had its Scottish Quarter, churches etc' & had a Scots population of around 30,000, many went native and stayed. Plenty of info' on this migration online.

Skoosh.

[didi55]

Hi Skoosh, I have had a look at the emigration of Scots to Poland.  It's very interesting and something I didn't know about before, so thanks for that.  Although my ancestor, Ferdinand, came from Prussia and settled in Scotland, it is perfectly possible that his father started from Scotland and went there.  The only thing is the names are not in any way Scottish - Ferdinand and Frederick.  Also Ferdinand's sons had Germanic names - William and George.

It's a real puzzle for me, but I'll keep at it!