Person:Jan Vos (43)

After the Hanse fell in the 16th century, Flensburg was said to be one of the most important trading towns in the Scandinavian area. Even as far away as the Mediterranean, Greenland and the Caribbean, Flensburg merchants were active. The most important commodities, after herring, were sugar and whale oil, the latter from whaling off Greenland. Only the Thirty Years' War put an end to this boom time as the town was becoming Protestant and thereby ever more German culturally and linguistically, while the neighbouring countryside remained decidedly Danish.

In the 18th century, thanks to the rum trade, Flensburg had yet another boom. Cane sugar was imported from the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands) and refined in Flensburg. Only in the 19th century, as a result of industrialization, was the town at last outdone by competition from nearby cities such as Copenhagen and Hamburg.

The rum blended in Flensburg then became a secondary industry in West Indian trade, and as of 1864 no longer with the Danish West Indies, but rather with Jamaica, then ruled by the British. It was imported from there, blended, and sold all over Europe. There is nowadays only one active rum distillery in Flensburg, "A. H. Johannsen".

Amsterdamse courant 29 Aug 1795

Family Search, Netherlands, Noord-Holland Church Records

1.   http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kattenburg_(Amsterdam) Were Jan Andries lived
2.   http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geldersekade, were Anna Catrina Maas lived
3.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flensburg
4.   = this Jan Andries Vos the same as Jan Andries Vos