Our farthest ancestor until now in paternal line is Berend
Jacobsen. He lived about 1700 - 1750.
The first time that we see the last name De
Groot is around 1753 and concerns his son Jacob Jacobs de Groot.
For the descendants of Berend Jacobsen see the family tree.
Geography
Hamburg: The place of residence of Berend Jacobsen was Oevelgönne,
a landstrip at the north bank of the river the Elbe at Ottensen and
Altona (now parts of Hamburg).
Juist: After the death of Berend his sons moved to the isle of Juist, belonging to East Frisia in the north of Germany. The harbour for their ships was elsewhere: in Dokkum (Friesland in the Netherlands).
Netherlands: For a period of two generations the families De Groot were living on Juist. After the french episode they left Juist for living in the Netherlands. The living descendants found can be divided into 4 family tree branches.
Shipping
Hamburg: From the time in Hamburg (Altona) no data have been found and therefore we don't know how Berend was earning his living, but what else could it be than shipping. To investigate this we tried to visualize the
maritime history in that time. The results are written in this website.
Juist: In the Juist period the brothers sailed to Sweden, Norway and to the countries around the Baltic sea. Their Sound passages for the Baltic Sea voyages have been found in the Sound toll registers and are noted on this website.
Dutch colony in Archangel
Moreover we have discovered, that by way of our
great-grandmother Carolina
Grondman, we have ancestors which were living in Archangel and were involved with the trade with Russia.
Therefore we are searching as well the Dutch colony there and the maritime history linked therewith.
