Settlement History

Since the middle of the 16th century Dutch and German colonists kept moving upstream Vistula to cultivate fallow lands by making use of their knowledge about building embankments and draining swampy land.

Other German settlers cultivated new land by rooting out overgrown forests.

The changing history of the land along the Vistula and in Central Poland makes it difficult for the descendants of the settlers to find out more about the captivating history of their ancestors.

Some local historians researched the history and the origin of these modern age German settlers in Central Poland. Their results are valuable sources for family history.

But learning more about the living conditions of our ancestors does also mean to take a bit of the European, especially the Polish and Prussian history into consideration.