I am going to finish my Dutch Sojourn now - having given you my bird's art view of Amsterdam, Kröller-Müller and Westhoven over the last few weeks. Being in Holland, my unspellable unpronouncable maiden name V L I E T S T R A was just another familiar surname and there are loads of names ending in "stra" with origins in Friesland. My great great grandfather Andries Klaasen Vlietstra was granted his surname in 1811 (see the previous blogs 15th May and 16th May 2012) and I enlarged the photocopy … [Read more...]
My great great great grandfather
I was quite moved that my g.g.g.Vlietstra was literate enough to sign his name as the entries above and below had an X and "sy merk - his mark" written next to it. See the X.The signature of Andries Klaasen VlietstraThe surname as it appeared in the document You can see that he has practised this surname as the handwriting is not very fluent. The "n" at the end of Klaasen became an s. He has also muddled the V of Vlietstra, writing an s instead. Of course in those days spelling was often … [Read more...]