Members of the Kruys family were part of the ‘Rusluie’, a community of Dutch traders and merchants living in the city of Saint Petersburg in Russia between 1720 and 1917.

After eight years, Jan left Russia to become office clerk at the Amsterdam trading firm ten Cate en Vollenhove in 1790, where he eventually became bookkeeper.

Jan was grandfather of Vriezenveen resident, Dutch vice admiral and minister of Navy Gerhardus Kruys (1838-1902).

Jan's son Jacob Kruys (1812-1852), who also worked in Russia, recorded a detailed description of the 15-day journey to Saint Petersburg in his diary.

The 2,400 kilometer trip took 15 days by covered wagon and led through Osnabrück, Berlin and Riga.

Jan documented the Storm Flood of 1825, the worst natural disaster of the nineteenth century in the Netherlands, as well as the malaria epidemic in Groningen en Friesland and the great fire of the town of Holten.