Person talk:Tryntje Van Pelt (1)

Patronymic and Father's Name Don't Match [20 February 2012]

This looks suspicious. I would expect Thyssen to be a patronymic, but the father's name given here is Matthias. Also, is Trintje van Pelt the same person as Teuntje van Pelt? --Pkeegstra 06:25, 13 February 2012 (EST)

Thyssen appears to be a corruption of Mathyssen. Teuntje and Trintje appear to be one and the same, both married to Jan van Dyke, each mother ot Eva Janse van Dyke,--Scot 17:16, 13 February 2012 (EST)

Just when I finally figure out Nicholas == Klaas and patronymic is Klazes, they throw something new at me :-) --Pkeegstra 19:58, 13 February 2012 (EST)

Spelling was hardly standardized in those days. Patronymics varied all over, some added an s, some an es or se, some sen and some nothing at all. Much of the confusion may result from users who may not have understood what they were or how they were formed. I am not an expert, so I don't know which if any is the correct form. It also appears many of the dutch may have Anglicized their names rapidly, but not all at the same time. eg. van Kouwenhoven/Kouwenhoven/Couvenhoven/Conover. Surnames were also uncommon in the Netherlands until Napolean mandated them in the early 1800's, so The surnames that came down from these immigrants were mostly derived from Patronymics and Toponymics and were not truly surnames.--Scot 14:04, 15 February 2012 (EST)

Yes, that is a very good list of the factors making New Amsterdam genealogy problematic. The amazing thing is that despite that, just how much is known. In the part of the Netherlands from which most of my ancestors came, Friesland and Groningen, there are only a few lines that thanks to lots of effort and a bit of luck have been traced as far as the mid-1600's. --Pkeegstra 12:32, 20 February 2012 (EST)