Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Allert Broers Broersma baptized 307 years ago

My 7 Great Grandfather was baptized 307 years ago today, on 2 November 1704 in the town of Wons, Wonseradeel, Friesland, The Netherlands, as Allert, the son of Broer Pijtters. Here is a index record of his baptism from Tresoar.nl

Wonseradeel, dopen, doopjaar 1704
Dopeling: Albert
Gedoopt op 2 november 1704 in Wons/Engwier
Kind van B(roer) Pyters, mr. en Orseltje

Gestandaardiseerde namen (voornaam en patroniem):
Dopeling : ALBERT of ALBERTJE
Vader : ..... PIETERS
Moeder : ORSELTJE
..... = naam of patroniem komt niet voor in de Thesaurus

Bron:
Collectie Doop-, Trouw-, Begraaf- en Lidmaatboeken (DTBL)
Herv. gem. Wons en Engwier, doop 1683-1811
Inventarisnr. : DTB 830
Op microfiche beschikbaar op studiezaal Tresoar


Unfortunately, the original text is not available to look at online yet, but I think most of the info is probably included in that index. Since they didn't keep birth records back then, the baptism record is the closest that can usually be found. Infants were typically baptized from a few days after birth to maybe a few months. So Allert may have been born in October.

Allert Broers is significant because he is the first member of the family, in my direct line, with the family name of Broersma. However, his older brother Pieter is the first documented with the name Broersma that I have found.

The tradition of names in the Netherlands was to name your children after your parents. So the firstborn son would be named after the father's father, and the firstborn daughter would be named after the mother's mother. Then the second son would be after the mothers father and the second daughter would be after the father's mother. The children that followed would be named after aunts and uncles and others in the family. Then the child's second name would be the father's name with either a zn, z or more commonly an s added to the end of the name. Zoon means son in dutch, so basically the second name would be "son of " so and so. In the case of Allert, his father was Broer, so his name was Allert Broers.

As I mentioned earlier, Allert's brother Pieter is the first documented with the name Broersma that I have found. Pieter is the first son, so he is named after his father's father. The first mention of the family name Broersma is in the baptism of Pieter's son Broer in 1732.

Wonseradeel, dopen, doopjaar 1732
Dopeling: Broer
Gedoopt op 13 januari 1732 in Wons/Engwier
Kind van Pieter Broers(ma), mr. en Dieuke Ruurds

Gestandaardiseerde namen (voornaam en patroniem):
Dopeling : BROER of BROERKE
Vader : PIETER .....
Moeder : DIEUWKE RUURDS
..... = naam of patroniem komt niet voor in de Thesaurus

Bron:
Collectie Doop-, Trouw-, Begraaf- en Lidmaatboeken (DTBL)
Herv. gem. Wons en Engwier, doop 1683-1811
Inventarisnr. : DTB 830
Op microfiche beschikbaar op studiezaal Tresoar


People in general didn't have a family name at this time. It wasn't until 1811 that all people in the Netherlands had to register a family name. Allert and Pieter were both school masters, as was their father. So they were probably well educated and respected in their communities. Many Frisian names (Friesland is the province in the Netherlands where my family is from) end in either inga, ma, stra or sma. (Find out more on Frisian last names here.) So Broersma became the family name, after Allert and Pieter's father: Broer Pijtters.

After an upsurge of riots in the Republic of the Seven United Provinces aimed against letting out tax collections, tax assessments were also adjusted in the province of Friesland. This led to the introduction of, among other things, quotisatie, a taxation system according to people's ability to pay. An overview of families in every city and region was made in 1749. It is in the quotisatie that I found the first reference to Allert having the family name of Broersma:

Quotisatiekohieren 1749
mr. A. Broersma, Wonseradeel
          Plaats:   Dedgum
Omschrijving:   tamelijk welgesteld
   Gezin volw:   3 en kind: 1
       Aanslag:   41-17-0
    Verhoging:
    Vermogen:   2000
            Bron:   Wonseradeel, fol. 93

Gestandaardiseerde naam: A. (m) / A. (v) BROERSMA


Right now, Allert's father Broer Pijtters is the furthest back I have been able to trace in my paternal line of Broersma. There are records that go back further in the towns where he lived, so I still hope to trace the family line back further. I guess that's one of the limitations of doing most of my research online, is that I don't have access to all the sources that are out there in the archives of the Netherlands.

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