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Origins of the Vreeken Family |
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OTHER LINKS
Dutch Home Pages By Family Name
Netherlands Society for Jewish Genealogy
Centraal Bureau Voor Genealogie (Dutch Language)
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The Vreeken family name can be traced back to the the year 1500. Most Vreekens
living in North America originated from the town of Aalsmeer, province of
North-Holland, The Netherlands. There are hundreds of branches of this family,
and they are all listed in "The Vreeken Book" in Aalsmeer.
Aalsmeer is also home to the world famous Aalsmeer Flower Auction. Visit
the flower auction website. In 1993, I had contact
with Willem Vreeken of Ontario, Canada. He is not one of Cornelis' descendants,
but is descended from Cornelis' grandfather, Jacob, and is closer to the
Vreekens still in The Netherlands. He provided the following translation
from "The Vreeken Book." which describes our family as being sort
of a lost tribe. How far back does the Vreeken family go?I am a 14th generation Vreeken, my dad a 13th, Peter a 12th, and Cornelis, an 11th generation Vreeken. Most of us in this family don't know much about the family history before that. But there are 10 generations before him, according to the information provided by Willem Vreeken from the Vreeken book in Holland. These generations are indicated by roman numerals. Cornelis (XI) had a big family and came from a big family. His brothers were Jacob, Abraham, Dirk, Pieter, Jan, and Willem. Their father was also named Cornelis (born 1837), and had brothers named Pieter, Dirk, Johannes, Jacob, Willem, and Paulus. (Notice how the same first names keep popping up.) Cornelis' (X) father was named Jacob (IX) and born in 1797. His brothers were named Jan, Cornelis, and Paulus. Jacob's father was named Pieter, (VIII) born in 1765. His brothers were named Jacob, Paulus, Vreek (?), and Dirk. Pieter's father was named Jan (VII), born 1726, and apparently an only child. His father Jacob (V) was born in 1702, and had brothers named Gerrit and Arend. The next generation (IV), the name is listed as Vreek., born 1667 I don't know if this is a first name or if the name is unknown. The brothers are Gerrit and Cornelis. Generation number III is another Jacob, born 1620, with brothers Cornelis and Jacob again. Fron here back, things get a bit murky, with Claes, (II), born circa 1600, his father Vrerick (I), born circa 1550, and Jacob, the Vreeken who apparently stated it all, born circa 1520. But this doesn't account for all the Vreekens, because there are two other Vreeken families, besides the one descended from Jacob (Vreek Jacobsz family). There is also the Vreek Reigersz family, which goes back to circa 1500, and also has descendents in North America. The Vreek Allertsz family has been extinct since 1802. What does the name "Vreeken" mean? Where did it come from?From the "Book of Vreeken" - "The name Vreeken is a patronym, derived from Vreek (pronounced "Vraik"), which is the same as Frederick (pron. Fraiderick). From ancient documents, the name is seen to have evolved as follows: Frederickszoon - Fredericksz - Vredericxz - Vrericxz - Vreecxz - Vreecksz - Vreekse - Vreeke - Vreeken, and also Vreken. The last two names were finalized in 1811 when Napoleon introduced the Civil Registry in the Netherlands, which meant that the Dutch people had to adopt permanent family names."
All of the information on this page was kindly sent to me by Willem Vreeken,
of Kingston Ontario. He obtained it from the following source:
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