Jaan was born in 1774. Jaan's father was Henno and his mother is Mai. His paternal grandparents were Mats and Ann; his maternal grandparents were Toomas and Tiiu. He had four brothers and two sisters, named Tõnn, Jaak, Mats, Jüri, Epp and Mari. He died at the age of 51 in 1825.