Family Background. The Fahrenheit family came from Krolewiec (Koenigsbergnow Kaliningrad), yet its beginnings should be searched for in Lower Saxony. The first known representative of this family, merchant Hans Fahrenheit, arrived in Krolewiec in 1512 from Rostock, yet his origins were in Hildesheim. In the church books of Krolewiec 50 of his probable descendants were found, living in 16 th and 17 th centuries. Among them there were 2 councilors and 5 aldermen, including one in Kaunas. Also the

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... daughters of the family very often married the representatives of the authorities elite. Those of the family who did not belong to authorities were usually merchants. They all lived in the richest of the three cities of Krolewiec -Knipawa (Kneiphof). Gaps in sources do not allow to establish reliably whose son was Reinhold Fahrenheit, born in 1617 in Krolewiec, the grandfather of Daniel Gabriel. Basing on the family repetition of names, it is possible to presume that his father was born in 1592 Reinhold the Elder, son of the Knipawa councilor Bernhard Fahrenheit (1548-1610) and of Margaret Haussmann (1555-1596), and the grandson of alderman Bernard the Elder and Barbara Stoltzenkirch from the Old City of Krolewiec. Reinhold the Younger moved to Gdansk, where on 4 March 1649 he received merchant citizenship. The following year, on 6 February he married Anna Greverath at St. Mary's Church. The bride, 6 years younger than himself, was the daughter of merchant Dirk (Theodore) Greverath (1596-1642) and patrician Anna Scheweke (1599-1632), from a very old Gdansk family, which provided the city with 3 mayors and 3 councilors. From among 5 or 6 children of Reinhold and Anna, 3 died in infancy. About the eldest son, Reinhold, 1 The following pages are taken from the book "Dzieciństwo i młodość Daniela Gabriela Fahrenheit" (The Childhood and Youth of Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit) by Andrzej Januszajtis, which appeared in 2002.