Abraham's descendants

Abraham Friedrich Krohn (1766-1827) and his wife Elisabeth Balser (1770-1837) had seven sons and no daughters. Only two of them — Friedrich Alexander (1798-1874) and Leopold Wilhelm (1806-1890) — have descendants living today.

The following family branches start from Friedrich's children:

• Catharina Charlotte's (1821-1909) descendants form two Breitenstein branches:

  Wilhelm Robert Breitenstein (1848-1933) was Catharina's son, whose biological father is not known. He was raised in Finland and stayed here. In 1897 he bought Kiiskilä estate, returning it again to Abraham's descendants for a couple of decades. Of his descendants we can mention Wilhelm Breitenstein (1933-2005), a former UN ambassador of Finland, and Alexander Stubb, the present minister for European affairs of Finland (1968-).

  Auguste Breitenstein (1853-?), one of Catharina's two younger sons from her marriage with Samuel Breitenstein (1816-1892), is believed to have descendants living in Switzerland.

• Nicolai (1831-1909) and Wilhelm Johan (1838-1916) both moved to Madeira. They have descendants living in England, South Africa, Australia and North America. The family chronicle well-known within the Krohn family was written by Nicolai.

• Descendants of Ida Nadeschda (1841-1925) and her husband Hugo Julius von Eickstedt (1832-1897), a Silesian baron, can be found in Central Europe, Australia and England. Among them are two members of the British royal family, lord Frederick Windsor (1979-) and lady Gabriella Windsor (1981-).

• Finnish surnames have been adopted in the branch of Julius Leopold Friedrich (1835-1888). All but one of Ilmari Krohn's children "translated" Krohn into Kurki-Suonio [Krohn/Kranich translates into Kurki, and Suonio was the pen name of Julius]. Kaarle Krohn's grandchildren, on the other hand, took the name Korosuo. More recently some of the younger people in these branches have taken again the name Krohn.

  The Julius branch has mainly stayed in Finland, but after leaving Estonia in the 1940s, the descendants of Aino Kallas have dispersed to Sweden, England and the United States.

• The branch of Leopold Augustin (1837-1892) has kept the name Krohn. Also this branch has stayed in Finland.

• With Emilie (1841-1922) and her 1st spouse Woldemar Hackman (1831-1871) starts the Hackman branch. The roots of the Hackman family are in Bremen (Germany), from where Woldemar's grandfather, Johan Friedrich Hackman the elder (1755-1807), moved to Viborg in 1777. The three sons of Emilie and Woldemar Hackman, Alfred Leopold Fredrik (1864-1942), Victor Axel (1866-1941) and Valter Oskar (1868-1922) were all well-known in their special fields of research, which were archaeology, geology and folklore, respectively. The eldest daughter, Aline (Lilly) von Düring (1860-1934), has descendants living in Norway.

  After Woldemar's death Emilie married a German composer Gustav Ernst Schreck (1849-1918), who worked as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, but this second marriage was childless.

The beginnings of these branches are shown in a family tree with (only) those of Abraham's descendants, up to great-grandchildren, who have descendants living today. A more complete list of Abraham's descendants is given on page Whole family. .

David Erdmann's signature, copied on tissue paper by Nicolai Krohn

Krohn family and Rügen

Abraham was the first of David's and Catharina's eleven children, of whom five reached adulthood. His nephew Karl Dalmer (1811-1876), a pastor and writer, wrote a Low German chronicle, which Nicolai quotes in his family chronicle, when he tells about Abraham's departure for St Petersburg in 1875 and his early days there. It is this Low German author whom we have to thank, in addition to Nicolai, for handing down Abraham's story to us.

Through Karl Dalmer the Krohns are also linked with the Tiburtius family in Rügen. Karl's sister-in-law, Franziska Tiburtius, is known as the first female doctor of medicine in Germany, and as a champion of women's rights for education. Her sister-in-law, Henriette Hirschfeld-Tiburtius née Pagelsen, on the other hand, was the first female dentist in Germany. As women both had to study abroad, Franziska in Switzerland, and Henriette in the United States.

Abraham was not the first or the last member of his family who left to north-east in searching for his fortune. The first of whom we know this was Abraham's uncle Gottfried Mathias Krohn (ca 1740-1777), who moved to Narva, Estonia, already before Abraham's birth. When Abraham used to visit Estonia to buy barley for his brewery, he met there with two female cousins — uncle Gottfried had then already passed away. Some of their descendants also moved to Finland.

Ín 1770s, uncle Gottfried's younger brother Johann Emmanuel Krohn (1748-1825) lived for five years in Finland — Rügen and Finland both belonged to Sweden at that time — after which he worked as Court Kapellmeister in St Petersburg. It was his example and actual support that were effective in the decision that Abraham should also move to St Petersburg. This uncle of Abraham had no children.

Later Abraham invited his youngest brother Johan Christian (1782-1817) to St Petersburg. Like Abraham, he was a baker. And as his accountant Abraham invited his nephew Carl Hasper (1801-1842). Both remained unmarried.

More details on Abraham's relatives are given in the family tree that starts with his great-grandfather and extends to his cousins, and in the related page of additional information. For the most part this information is based on Nicolai Krohn's investigations, which he continued after writing the unpublished family chronicle that is known among family members. In the 20th century Ensio Krohn/Kurki-Suonio also studied parish registers in Poseritz (1918), and Ilmari Krohn did the same in Richtenberg and Stralsund (1930). Some additional information has also been found in Max Krohn's book Chroniken Deutscher Sippen (Leipzig 1939). These sources were also utilized by Salme Setälä in her book Levoton veri (WSOY 1966).