Methodology Spotlight

Name adoption for the Broemet family

Today, we are looking at the name adoption by the Broemet family in Amsterdam (1811).

record shows Simon Hijmans adopted the family name of Broemet
Civil registration (Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands), register van naamsaanneming [name adoption register] 1811-1812, volume B, page 4, Simon Hijmans Broemet (2 December 1811); “5009 Inventaris van het Archief van de Burgerlijke Stand [Finding aid for the Archives of the Civil Registration],” digital images, Stadsarchief Amsterdam (https://archief.amsterdam : viewed 23 May 2020), image 6 of 147.

Translation

Before us, deputy mayor, as civil registrar of the municipality of Amsterdam, department of Zuiderzee, first arrondissement, appeared: Simon Hijmans, living at Oude Doelestraat no. 3, canton 2; who declared to adopt the family name of Broemet, and the first name of Simon Hijmans.

He has one son and one daughter and no grandson and no granddaughter, named: Saartje, 21 years old, and Hijman, 19 years old, who are both living at their father’s house. He lets them keep their first name.

The informant signed this record with us on 2 December 1811.
[followed by the signatures of Simon Hijmans Broemet and the civil registrar]

view of Oude Doelenstraat in Amsterdam
View of the Oude Doelenstraat in Amsterdam with the Royal Palace in the background, Tresling & Co., 1883 (photo credits: Amsterdam City Archives)

Comments

In this record we find Simon Hijmans, who lives at Oude Doele[n]straat 3 in Amsterdam. He adopts the family name of Broemet. Because he has two children living with him, he adopts the name for them too.

You might wonder how Simon came up with the family name Broemet. With some research, we find more information about him. For example, that Simon was born in Amsterdam in 1760 as the son of Adam (or Chaim) Jacob (of Jokeb) and Giertje Levie Bromet. [see www.geni.com] Simon died in Amsterdam on 27 January 1829. He sold lottery tickets. His son Hijman reported his death. [see archief.amsterdam]

Obviously, Simon chose his mother’s family name: Bromet and Broemet are two different spelling variants of the same name.

Patronymic names

In one of our previous articles we already talked about name adoption. At the beginning of the 19th centry civil registration was introduced in the Netherlands. This is when a fixed family name became mandatory. Those families who had no fixed family name yet, adopted one instead of using patronymic names. Other families confirmed the name they had been using before.

Not only families in the northern provinces adopted names. Another large group that adopted family names were the Jews. For centuries they had used their own naming conventions. Some adopted only a family name. Others changed their first names too. Like in other cases, because of the name adoption you might be looking in vain for your family name. Tip: if you cannot find a family name before 1811, then see if there is a name adoption record.

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