Fred@compu.com

Just a point, Thomas Fischer in his books 'The Scots in Germany' and 'The Scots in East and West Prussia' did extensive research into church records in East Prussia prior to WW2. He lists pages of names thought to be of Scots origin. His research also prompted him to investigate Scottish trading records which go back to the 14th Century and show close links with East Prussia.

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Have you ever investigated the books? Has anyone thought to look out his

original research papers?

Andrew Stone, by YOU I suppose you think of the webmaster here in singular. Genealogy.net is made up of many people who work on the pages in one way or another. As far as I know, personally that is, no one here has any knowledge of Thomas Fischer or any of his research papers. On the other had others have done extensive research into the Scottish presence in Prussia going back the old HANSA. Both Elbing and Danzig had sizable Scottish colonies and their presence was felt through 1945 when all names were changed to something new and Polish. History sort of went south. Today this is all different again but the damage has been done and Alt Schottland no longer exists. Most of the scholarship does not differentiate between Scotch and British trade and things get lumped together so that don't know all the particulars. The Eastland Company in Elbing for example was mainly responsible for the import of fine cloth for the use of the nobility of the Polish kingdom who in turn sold all their grain via Danzig to create a trading triangle which moved funds between British and the two German ports. When the Eastland company pulled out of Elbing, the town's importance as a trading center also became marginal and Danzig increased instead. Whatever the trade records might show, they are hardly genealogical in nature as people came and went except for a few families who eventually Germanized themselves anyway. Fred