For a long time, the rules regarding surnames in the Netherlands were not too complex. Children from a legal marriage were given the father’s surname. Children born to unmarried mothers were given the mother’s surname. But a new law has changed this from 1 January 2024. Napoleon Let us go back in time… Until 1811, Read more…
Tag: family names
Dutch or Latin names
Genealogy is all about names: first names or given names, family names or surnames. When you are reading old documents, you will find ‘obscure’ names; names that nowadays are very, very uncommon. These ‘lost’ names are often difficult to read, because they do not make sense to us anymore. But what if a priest or Read more…
Is Biden a common name in the Netherlands?
This 20th of January 2021 marks the day that Joseph R. Biden Jr. is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States. There are a lot of articles on the internet that deal with his immediate family and his Irish ancestry. But it made us question whether this family name ever appeared in the Read more…