Continuing to find information. I attended the Webinar and the RootsTech conference. The sessions I attended were most interesting and informative – it’s great to be able to learn from other genealogists and people who are experts in this field.

I have become intrigued by the family of my Gr, Gr, Grandfather’s half-sister recently. Wilhelmine Rössein/Makowski was born in 1822 in Danzig, Prussia. She married a member of the Polish nobility by the name of Franz Casper Melchior von Lubicz Szeliski! Quite a mouthful, to be sure! I have found virtually nothing about him, which I think is rather strange, given that he was supposed to be of noble descent. However, their children have proven to be most interesting. In particular, one of their sons – Paul Victor Spartan von Lubicz Szeliski – has given me lots to research. He was born in Danzig, Prussia on 17 December 1859, married on 26 June 1889 in York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and died on 7 December 1938 in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA.

A cousin from another branch of the family had mentioned to me a number of years ago that her family had heard about a von Szeliski connection, but I took it no further as I had absolutely no knowledge of the name or connection. However, in the last couple of years up it popped and it has fascinated me ever since. I now know that Paul von Szeliski and one of his daughters, Hilda von Szeliski, visited Scotland in 1910. The ship record states that they disembarked the ship at Greenock in Scotland. Greenock was, of course, my family’s home town. It’s therefore likely that he visited his cousins whilst in Greenock, hence the knowledge of the name by other family members. What I now hope for is that I can make contact with some of Paul’s descendants, of whom there are many, to try to find out if they have further information about him and of course his trip to Scotland – they may even hold some long cherished photos of the trip, which would be absolutely amazing! I live in hope for that one!

So that is where I am with this branch of the family. I am on the lookout for any of the von Szeliski, Kerr, Harrison, Hinzmann side of the family, to explore our connection more.

It’s been so fascinating since finding out about my Gr, Gr, Grandfather’s siblings, as well as his parents, who originated in Danzig, Prussia. I’ve found many birth, marriage and death certificates and of course they’re all in Old German Script. I would say that at first I found them completely impossible to read, apart from recognising the word ‘Groth’, which was of course the surname. However, as time has gone on, I am managing to read a little bit more of the certificates. Don’t get me wrong, the handwriting is still very very difficult to decipher, but with a little help (ok a lot of help!) from my new friends in the Prussian Genealogy group, I’m managing a lot better.

I’m still on the lookout for living descendants of one of my Gr, Gr Grandfather’s siblings, who remained in Danzig, and think I am pretty close. It would be amazing to find actual living descendants still living in Germany today. I’m just so interested to hear their stories and find out what happened to them over the years. My interest (obsession) with family history is as strong as ever and I long to find out as much information as I can about that side of my family.

I’m hoping to attend my first Webinar very soon – not sure if I’ll find anything of value as far as my family history goes, but it will be interesting nonetheless from a simple genealogical point of view. Looking forward to it, and will report back on how I feel it went. There’s also a virtual RootsTech conference next week, and I’m keen to attend that too – all of these things are very worthwhile and the experts giving the lectures are so well informed that we can’t help but learn something of value.

Just a little bit of information that I hope someone will find interesting.

Little did we think that 2020 would turn out the way it did! I was quite ill with a persistent cough for the first 3 months of the year. My doctor eventually decided I may have had whooping cough! However, during that time a virus had emerged from Wuhan in China, called Coronavirus (or Covid as it has become known). The main symptom seemed to be a persistent cough – so had I had this Coronavirus? I’ll never know, as I wasn’t tested for it, but the virus has gone on to affect everyone’s lives in an incredible way. I intend to document the personal effects of the pandemic in more detail elsewhere, but will note here how the year progressed regarding family history.

As the country went into lockdown in March, it meant we were not allowed to leave home except for essential trips, either to do a weekly shopping or for daily exercise. We adhered to those strict guidelines and I honestly enjoyed the tranquility around our home and surrounding area. I now had much more time to devote to family history.

I was finding more interesting bits of information about the Groth family. I managed to find birth, marriage and death certificates for many of the family, but of course they were written in Old German script, so extremely difficult for me to read and translate. Google Translate helped with some of it, but I struggled to fully translate the certificates. At some point I came across a Facebook page dedicated to Prussian Genealogy and I haven’t looked back since! It is a superb Group of individuals who are dedicated to genealogy and helping others in their quest to find information about their ancestors. I have had so much help and can’t thank the Group enough. Posting a birth, marriage or death certificate for translation is immediately taken up by one of the members and they very promptly give a full translation. It has also been fascinating learning about other people’s journeys through genealogy.

The changes to family history/genealogy research since I started with this hobby/obsession more than 35 years ago have been incredible. Every day brings the possibility of a piece of new-found information and detail. More and more documents are being uploaded to the internet and we are able to confirm connections with ancestors where previously that information would merely have been a ‘maybe’ or a ‘probably’. Having made contact with descendants of one of my Gr, Gr Grandfather’s brothers has allowed me to gain a real insight into the family dynamic and life in the early/mid 1800s. That branch of the family emigrated to Canada, finally settling in the USA.

My goal is to try to find descendants of one of his other brothers, Johann Ernst Groth, who I know married and had family. I think they may have remained in Prussia, and I have found a death certificate for one of his grandchildren, named Ella Eugenie Groth/Bublitz. She died in Lubeck, Shleswig Holstein, Germany in 1982. The search is on!

It turns out that the actual spelling of my ancestors’ surname was Groth.  That would have been one of the reasons why I couldn’t find any information about them, beyond my Great, Great Grandfather, in Prussia.  It has also emerged that Ferdinand was actually named Jacob Ferdinand, and his father, who was named as Frederick on Ferdinand’s wedding certificate, was actually called Jacob Abraham.  Absolutely fascinating stuff.  An extremely helpful person from Poland got in touch with me to give me some very valuable information and it has opened up a whole new line of the Groth family for me.  Carolina Grott’s name was actually Agathe Carolina R⍥ss/R⍥ssein.  She had been married previously and had a daughter, Wilhelmine R⍥ss/R⍥ssein.

Ferdinand had brothers too, and I’m particularly interested in finding more about any descendants of his brother, Johann Ernst Groth, b 1832, d 1914.  I’m fairly sure that he married  an Amalie Erdmuth Koslowski in 1858.  They had 2 children, Oscar Ferdinand (b 1859) and Maria Tusnelda (b 1868).  It’s important to stress that I haven’t had this information confirmed as yet.  Oscar Ferdinand Groth married an Agnes Maria Theresia Kowalewski in 1888, and they had 3 children, namely Hermann Arthur (b 1889), Ella Eugenie (b 1890) and Anna Gertrude (b 1893).

More to follow …

Very recently, on a Facebook forum relating to my home town of Greenock, a newspaper article was posted – it is attached here.  This article, dated Monday 4 April 1904, refers to a lady who died on Saturday 2 April, 1904 in Craigieknowes Hospital, Greenock.  Her cause of death was Smallpox and it said she had lived in East Crawford Street, Greenock. It would appear that that lady was my Great Grandmother, Janet Russell (Weir) Grott.  She was 38 years old when she died and left a husband and 8 children, the youngest of whom was just short of her 3rd birthday (my Grandmother).

Something quite interesting to report – I’ve come across vital information regarding Ferdinand.  I have found that he was born on 19 January 1824 in Dantzic (Danzig), Prussia.  He seems to have left home and went to sea as a ‘boy’ on a ship in Dantzic at the age of 13, in 1837.

This is the earliest photo I have of any of the Grott family.  It was taken around 1895, shortly after the death of Ferdinand Grott.  It shows his wife, Christina Campbell, along with his 3 sons, William, George and Ferdinand, and daughter Margaret.

Garroch and Griffin families

I recently started to research my husband’s family.  His mother came from Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, but we recently found out that her Grandmother may have been born in Scotland.  This was fascinating, as we had always assumed that his mother’s family and ancestors were all from the Cheshire/North Wales area.  As soon as I started to search, I found that his Great Grandmother did, indeed come from Scotland.  She was born in a little village in Wigtownshire, called Garlieston.  It didn’t take me too long to find details about this branch of the family, but the most interesting part, still to be discovered, is what caused that family to move from a little village in the south-west coast of Scotland to Birkenhead – a ship-building town in the north-west of England?  I am at the moment looking into the history of Wigtownshire and in particular the area where the ancestors lived, to find out what sort of work people had there.  I do know that some of them were agricultural labourers, so it’s quite intriguing to think they moved to a ship-building area of the country.

Garlieston, Sorbie and Kirkinner in Wigtownshire are all very small communities where my husband’s ancestors lived and worked.  They are in a very beautiful part of the country, with lovely scenery and stunning sea views.   Having recently returned to caravanning, we decided that our first outing of the year would be to that area of the country to do some searching – mainly of churchyards and cemeteries.  We headed for a lovely caravan site at Garlieston and had a few days to explore the area.  We managed to find a gravestone, in Kirkinner, which had details of my husband’s Great, Great, Great Grandmother.  This was so interesting because according to her death certificate she died a ‘Pauper’!  How damning were birth and death certificates in days gone by!!  She was buried in the same grave as her sister’s family and actually named on the gravestone.  We also found the gravestone in Wigtown Cemetery of my husband’s Great, Great Uncle, who died in 1958.  We didn’t have much time to explore this time, but we fully intend to return to the area and base ourselves at the lovely campsite and do much more in the way of research.

It is always really interesting to find something new when doing family history research, and finding a different branch of the family is an unexpected treat.

I’m attaching a photograph that came from my Grandmother’s photo box.  I have wondered about it for many, many years and just can’t figure out who is in the photo.  The fact that it was in my Gran’s possession would suggest to me that it was a family who were related to her in some way.  I don’t think it is any close family, but as my Gran was brought up by an Aunt I have always been of the opinion that the photo is to do with that side of the family.  The two family names that I think are relevant here are Weir and Linn, from Greenock.  The Weir family is related to me, but the Linn family is only related through marriage.  I don’t even know what date the photo was taken, but feel that it is the early part of the 1900s.

I posted this photo onto a Facebook page, and was inundated with suggestions and comments, which was very pleasing.  It has given me renewed vigour in trying to find out who the people in the photo might have been.  I will now be analysing certain parts of my family tree to try to work it all out.  Hopefully I will be able to come back here with an answer very soon!  

It’s been some time since I’ve managed to put anything onto my blog, but I will try to add much more detail from now on.  I will start with the earliest Grott ancestor – Frederick – and work from there.

Frederick Grott, my Great, Great, Great Grandfather, was born around 1790 (+ or – 10 years).  I have no information about his birth place.  The only information I have is that he was married to Carolina Ross and that his profession was Ship Master.  I know that he was deceased at the time of his son’s (Ferdinand) marriage in 1857.  I don’t know his nationality, but believe it may be Prussian as that is where his son Ferdinand was born.  I have no information about his wife, Carolina, apart from her name and the fact that she, too, was deceased at the time of Ferdinand’s marriage in 1857.

Ferdinand Grott, my Great, Great, Grandfather, a Ship Master in the Merchant Service, was born around 1824 in Danzig, Prussia. According to the 1861 Census, his address was 16 Bruce Street, Greenock.  In 1891, the address was given as 52 St Lawrence Street, Greenck.  He was away at sea during 1881 as Christina was recorded as being the Head of the Household when the Census was carried out. Christina was born at Auchdacai in Whitehouse, Kintyre on 23 November 1831. Ferdinand and Christina were married on 29 June 1857 and had 4 children, William, Margaret, George and Ferdinand. They appear to have been a very close knit family as none of them seemed anxious to leave home. George married at the age of 25 – not young by any standards – Margaret was 28 and William and Ferdinand were aged 40 before leaving home to marry. Perhaps Christina was very dominant – it would be nice to find out.

I have several Certificates of Competency for Ferdinand regarding his employment as a Ship Master. Ferdinand was involved in the sinking of a ship on her maiden voyage from Greenock to St Lucia. He was not the Master of the ship, but the First Mate. I have a record of the court case regarding this incident and it seems that Ferdinand was supposed to be steering the ship, but had been drinking heavily. He apparently sent the ship’s Cook to the bridge to steer the ship and it was steered into rocks, ran aground and sank off the coast of Ireland.

Ferdinand died on 24 January 1895 of Disease of the Brain. A photograph I have on file is (I guess) of his widow and 4 children taken soon after his death. Both Ferdinand and Christina are buried in Greenock Cemetery and a photograph of the grave is on file. Christina died on 9 April 1906.

George Grott, my Great Grandfather, a Boilermaker, was born in Greenock on 16 September 1865. His wife, Janet Russell Weir, was born at 9 Watt Street, Greenock on 6 April 1865. They married on 29 January 1890 and had 9 children: George, Jane, Christina, John, Elizabeth, Robert, James, Janet and Margaret (who died in infancy). John died during the 1914-1918 War and James died in 1916 of Cardio Valvular Disease. Janet tragically died on 2 April 1904 of Smallpox. George died on 28 February 1928 of Arterio Sclerosis and Cerebral Haemorrhage. Both are buried in Greenock Cemetery, although there is no gravestone at the grave. The 1881 Census records George living at 83 Belville Street, Greenock, with his mother and 3 siblings. He is described as a Grocer’s Assistant. Presumably his father, Ferdinand, was away at sea during the time the Census was taken. The 1891 Census records him as living at 18 East Crawford Street, Greenock, along with his wife and first child. He is recorded as being a Boilermaker. In 1901 the Census has him still living at 18 East Crawford Street with his wife and 5 children. He was described as a Rivet Tester. Interestingly, also living at this address (within the same tenement building) were the Linn family – some of whom were married to the sisters of Janet Weir. Janet died in 1904. The 1911 Census lists George, at the same address as before, with 5 of his children at home. George died in 1928.