"Before us Maire,
the parish of Harlingen, Canton Harlingen, District of Leeuwarden, Province of
Vriesland, appeared Andries Klaasen, resident of Harlingen who declared that he
would be adopting the name of Vlietstra as his surname and has signed in our
presence thus:
Andries Klaasen
Vlietstra"
This document shows when my family was
granted its surname in 1811. It is signed by my great-great-great-grandfather
Andries Klaasen Vlieststra. My brother
who has done all the genealogy got this copy when he did his research in Holland in 1990.
In 1811, the French, under Napoleon
occupied the Netherlands.
They started having a census for the purpose of taxation, and forced everyone
to have a surname, which was not not the custom for the Dutch. The Dutch
thought this would be a temporary measure, and some people chose comical or
offensive sounding names as a practical joke on their French occupiers; such as
Naaktgeboren (Born naked) or Zondervan (without a surname)as well as other more embarrasing names. Andries Klaasen was
probably forced to leave Leeuwarden where they lived there on a canal called
"Het Vliet" and moved to Harlingen
where he chose the surname that was assigned to all those that lived on Het Vliet
and were called "vlietsters". Hence the name Vlietstra.
To see if you are related to Andries Klaasen
Vlietstra, look at the family tree online which was drawn up by Jakob
Vlietstra, my father's much younger cousin who now lives in the USA. jakobvlietstra.familieband.nl
Also please forward this to all the Vlietstras you know.
I intend producing screened copies at A3 size - more details tomorrow.
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