The Dutch (i.e., from Holland) Reformed Church was the first denomination of the larger Reformed tradition in America. They were quite early, as the first Dutch Reformed pastor arrived in New York in 1628. The early Dutch Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church were quite similar in beliefs. As the membership in the Dutch Reformed churches dwindled, the remaining members often associated with the Presbyterian churches.
Interpreting the Dutch Reformed baptismal records is sometimes a challenge. Dates of birth are seldom recorded. The biggest problem is the naming system, which is called "patronymic 1 ". A child took his father's first name as his second name. Thus, in succeeding generations the last name of the child, by our standards, appears to change. Gradually, the adoption of fixed surnames took place, but the genealogist must be aware that fixed and patronymic names may exist.
Within the patronymic naming system, in the Dutch Reformed culture at that time, women retained their birth surnames instead of adopting that of their husbands. Consider this actual case for Arie Brinck. Arie, a child of Lambart Brinck and Rachel van Garden, was baptized 25 April 1744. The witnesses were Daniel Broadhead and Hester Luykese, his wife. Women in the Dutch Reformed faith in New York and Pennsylvania retained their maiden names throughout their life. (The system seems to be returning as both of my daughter-in-laws use their maiden name!)
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We are now up to the third remove in baptismal traditions, but rather than start it in the middle of this Note I will merely mention that it includes the Anabaptist and the Baptist traditions.
There will be no Note on Saturday, as I will be at the Germanna Reunion and I do not carry a computer with me. (One has to have a day of rest.) I will be "working", though, as I am giving one of the talks on Saturday, namely "Col. Spotswood Writes to Col Harrison", However, I tend to regard this sort of activity as fun and look forward to it, even though I sometimes get a little nervous at the podium.
I hope to see several of you there. I am contributing a large, framed color photograph, Chinese Hibiscus, to the Saturday night auction for the benefit of the Germanna Foundation. Thom wanted people to bring something from their local area. The photo of the Chinese Hibiscus was taken at Longwood Gardens, which is about five miles down the road from here.
(18 Jul 03)
1 (Note From GWD, WebPage Manager: The "patronymic" naming system is not unique to the Dutch Reformed people. Actually, before fixed surnames became the standard, just about all cultures in Europe used the "patronymic" system. In most of these cultures, the patronymic surname was made up of the father's name, plus "son", or the word for "son" in the particular language. Thus, in English, John, son of William, would have been known as John Williamson. In Sweden, Sven, son of Johan, became Sven Johansen. In Scotland, Ian, son of Donald, became Ian MacDonald. In Ireland, Sean, son of Riley, became Sean O'Reiley. In Russia, Ivan, son of Gregor, became Ivan Gregorovich. And so on. When "permanent" surnames became the norm, many people kept the "patronymic" they were using at the time as their surname.)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.