CHRISTIAN TRUSCHKY
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/KNS2-MN7
Christian Truschky/Trosky/Trotsky (Polish: Krystian Trocki) was born 1766 in Gdansk, the main harbour of Poland and the second biggest city after Warsaw in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1772 Gdansk was an enclave surrounded by Prussian occupied territories and in 1793 was finally occupied by Prussians, until 1918. Like many inhabitants of Gdansk in the past, 1784 Christian got in touch with Dutch institutions and became a private rifleman in the Dutch Army. With other soldiers he was sent to Batavia to protect the stores of the Dutch East India Company.
He arrived in1787 in the Cape from Amsterdam enroute to India as a bombardier under contract of the East India Company. On the way to Asia he learnt that there was an epidemic of Blackwater fever in Dutch India and he absconded and deserted in Cape Town in 1787. He found a job at a farm near Murraysburg and in 1792 married a local woman, Aletta Louisa Enslin.
Marriage: 30 December 1792, Paarl Dutch Reformed Church, Cape of Good Hope.

He is buried in the old cemetery behind the old parsonage of Somerset East.

CHILDREN

1 Johan Martin (1793) x Susanna Maria Magdalena DIEDERICKS

MARRIAGE: 6 Oct 1817 Graaff-Reinet Dutch Reformed Church, Cape Colony

2 George Frederick Christiaan Troskie (1793?),x Gesina Wilhelmina BODENSTEIN
MARRIAGE: 17 Apr 1820 Graaff-Reinet Dutch Reformed Church, Cape Colony

3 Maria Magdalena Elizabeth Troskie (28 Jan1795),x Johannes Frederick DE BEER
MARRIAGE: 8 Jul 1822 Graaff-Reinet Dutch Reformed Church, Cape Colony

4 Jacobus Johannes (~30 Jul 1797),

5 Catharina Frederica Troskie (28 Jul 1798),x William CALLAGHAN
MARRIAGE: 7 Jul 1823 Graaff-Reinet Dutch Reformed Church, Cape Colony

6 Elizabeth Petronella Johanna Troskie (20 Jan 1801),x Ds Willem SCHUTZ
MARRIAGE: 7 Jul 1823 Graaff-Reinet Dutch Reformed Church, Cape Colony

7 Aletta Louisa Troskie (24 Jun 1803),

8 Johanna Wilhelmina Troskie (13 Mar 1808),x John BUTLER
MARRIAGE: 20 Nov 1831 Somerset East Dutch Reformed Church, Cape Colony

9 Abraham Peter Johan Troskie (01 Jan 1810),

10 Albertus Jacobus Johan Troskie (01 Dec 1813). X Catharina Abramina NAUDE
MARRIAGE: 8 May 1845 Cradock Dutch Reformed Church, Cape Colony


In 1814 there was a Christiaan Trotsky living in Cape Town at 7 Peper Street (1814 African Court Calendar Book). It probably yhe same person.
In West Prussian Land Register 1772/73 (made in Polish territories occupied by Prussians around Gdansk) there is a person noted of a similar name: Christian Drosky, Neukirch, Amt Elb. Niederung, near to Gdansk and Elblag (Elbing). This is probably not the same person; nor probably a relative.
In northern Poland in particular the vicinity of Gdansk, the name Trocki is encountered nowadays. In all of Poland, in the beginning of the 1990's, 1223 individuals had this surname; about. 350 in the region of Gdansk. There are also other similar names like Tracki and Trucki; together about 400 in Gdansk region (the former West Prussia).

Sources:
Genealogies of Old South African Families; C. C. de Villiers, C. Pama, 1981
Die Groot Afrikaanse Familienaamboek; C. Pama, 1983
Personalia of the Germans at the Cape 1652-1806; J. Hoge, 1946
South African Genealogies; J. A. Heese, R. T. J. Lombard, 1947
South African Stamouers: http://www.stamouers.com/ ; AM van Rensburg
Web digital archives: TANAP, Uitgevaren voor de Kamers van de VOC
http://voc.websilon.nl/ National Archives of South Africa (NASA).
The Polish scholar Zukowski and Polish German sources: J. Hoge, C. Pama,
Compiled by Mariusz Kowalski
21 September 2006

Images and Hyperlinks:
SAF 2018: Acknowledgement: Linie Gouws (née Troskie)
Annelie Els.