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Vreeken Coat of Arms |
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The Vreeken Coat of Arms - 1761(image courtesy of Dick Vreeken)
Martin Vreeken wrote in 1960: "For years we searched for the Coat of Arms of the Vreeken ancestry. In Holland, we could not find it. And finally, right under our nose we found the book that contained the Vreeken Coat of Arms. The history said it originated in Flanders. Flanders then belonged to Holland, but when Holland and Belgium became separate countries only part of Flanders belonged to Holland. Our ancestry moved farther north and settled mostly in the Haarlemmermeer Polder. Some of them moved to the New World. New York was then called New Amsterdam, and evidently they had the Coat of Arms recorded there, for now it can only be found in the New York Library. The figures on the Coat of Arms stand for the three vocations of our ancestry, Merchants, Agriculture, and Seafaring Life. And that is true, for even today it is still that way. As of today, most Vreeken's are to found in the Haarlemmermeer Polder in Holland. Our Coat of Arms originated in Flanders in 1761." Read more about Martin's discovery of the Coat of Arms in Chapter V of the Vreeken Story |
