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This
website has been
setup and maintained by a few Pokrants living in Canada, mostly in
Manitoba. See the Pokrant family tree for a better idea of who we are.
We
originally created
this website to advertise a family reunion but since then it seems to
have attracted the attention of Pokrants from around the world. So we
have decided to keep the website up and running for the sake of
Pokrants everywhere.
Please
leave your messages or questions in the Guestbook
The
Pokrant Family History
By
Ewald Wuschke
The Pokrant
(also Pokrandt, Pokrand and Bokrandt) family was living in Poznan and
West Prussia for some time. They possibly were part of the German
settlement that the Teutonic Knights established in West Prussia in the
1300s and 1400s. There are several place names along the Warthe River
named Pokrandt. They spoke a "low" German language called Kashubish
Platt. The term "Kashub" referred to the Province of Neumark which the
State of Brandenburg established in 1405.
The
Neumark was established on the territory where the Slavic Kashub had
been living up until this time. These Slavic Kashubians who did not
assimilate (and the ajority did not) with the German settlers moved
into northern West Prussia which was called Pommerellen after 1450 when
the Polish state took this land from the Teutonic Knights. According to
the surnames of the Kashubs in Pomerellen and the Germans in the
Neumark there seems to have been an interchange, the Germans moving
from territory then controlled by Poland to German territory and the
Slavic Kashubians moving from territory then controlled by Germany to
territory that the Poles had seized from the German Teutonic Knights.
So
far our records show four Pokrant families who had settled in Poland.
One family was living in the Wladyslawow parish, and another eventually
settled in Brzeziny parish. A third Pokrant branch settled in the Rypin
district where a Johan Pokrant and then Gottlieb Pokrant were teachers
in the village of Jeziorki.
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