Chris BONDE wrote:
One of my cousins traced our family name back to 1754 in Holland. But they couldn't go any farther for several reasons, one of which was that prior to that point the Dutch used the Scandanavian? system of naming where a daughter's surname was the father's first name with "dottir" (or the Dutch equivalent) added and a son's surname was the dad's first name with "son" added.I agree with you about certainly knowing who the mother is. Knowing the father was difficult in some areas long time ago.
FWIIW, far back on my father's side there were a few like that but only for women
Anna's dotter, Katrine's dotter. One bad case was Hans Jepsen, Jep Hansen, Hans Jepsen, and Jep Hansen. Some people have the middle name of their mother's or mother's mother's surname. Such as Kale Thorpe Henderson, where, Thorpe is the matrilineal.
I'm sure that's why there are so many Johnson's running around. My dad's name was John so that would be my surname with that system.
Rod
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