Johann Jakob Grünbauer (May 7, 1847, Katzwang (Germany) / January 2, 1886 Rotterdam), had one son with his wife Elizabeth Ponse (October 5, 1855 / August 19, 1943) in Rotterdam, Henri Jacobus Marie Grünbauer (January 30, 1883 / July 30. 1982). A second son, Johann Adam Grünbauer (born May 13, 1884) died on July 22, 1884. It is known from lore that in response to an equally worrying condition of H.J.M. (Harrie) the doctor told mother Elizabeth that he would not be a "stayer" either. Contrary to the doctors' exceptions he lived for 99.5 years, but hardly had a chance to know his father J.J.. In those days, Elisabeth had to pay 400 guilders to have her son naturalized because his father was German. Apparently that was the law at the time. Ir Johann Grünbauer (Stark in Steel-Diemen) says: “Grünbauer literally means green farmer. It was a collective term for ranchers. But that doesn't mean that my ancestor (Johann Jakob) was also active in agriculture. He was a carpenter who found work on ships and boats near the Rhine. At that time as there was a lot of poverty in Bavaria at the time and he went to the Netherlands to try his luck there moving to Rotterdam. The country at the time stood at the beginning of an enormous development. There the Catholic Grünbauer also found his Protestant wife. The announcement of his marriage was not well received by the German family. They thought that a port city like Rotterdam must be a spoiled place. All the women there must have been whores. In a nutshell, the family has completely separated from him. Apparently that didn't bother the old Grünbauer. Incidentally, he had already changed from the Catholic to the Protestant faith – probably in connection with his marriage. A son of his - this is my grandfather (H.J.M. Grünbauer) - moved from Rotterdam to Amsterdam. The reason was sad. His father had died when he was young. When the (half) orphan lost his job in a chocolate factory in Rotterdam, finding a new job proved difficult. A deacon from the church came to his aid and told him he knew a job for him in Amsterdam. Of course he agreed. Apparently, grandpa is known as a man with twelve trades and thirteen accidents among certain branches in the familytree."

Through his grandson Harry Grünbauer Sr. some anecdotes are known about his work in Amsterdam: It appears he worked as a freelancer for a long time, selling food from door to door. In his father's logbook he even wrote down a few orders on the remaining unused pages, presumably due to a lack of paper. He transported his goods in a cart, drawn by a dog. A motorized vehicle of course was not an option for him and a horse must have been too big an investment. He used what he called a "show lock" on the cart, which made it appear as if the cart was locked when he had to go upstairs for a customer and left the cart unattended for a while. He thought it was too much of a waste of time having to get the cart up and down all the time. By the way, his car was never been stolen, so apparently the system worked well and the dog may have been very alert too!