Familie Hieminga
Familie Hieminga
J. Hieminga
Introduction
Welcome to this website covering the family tree of the Hieminga family, as well as some related families such as the Veldstra and van der Laan family (with thanks to Doug van der Laan). This website is a result of a personal hobby that got out of hand (I have more of those) and started with a simple statement.
‘Everybody named Hieminga is related to each other’
I cannot remember who said this first but I have heard it a few times during my youth and it got me thinking. By the time the internet made geneaology searches possible and a lot easier I started with one database, just to see where it would get me. The family tree has grown and grown from there on but so far I have not been able to confirm the above statement. Trawling through all these family files you will most likely find the same thing I have found: next to the main Hieminga tree, there is a subset of families that dates back a long way to 1749 in Arum, a small town in Friesland, but there the trail runs cold. Currently the data I have does not enable me to link this group of Hiemingas to the rest of the tree.
Surnames in The Netherlands
The decision was taken between 1799 and 1815 that everyone should have a surname, if you didn’t have one, you had to choose one. It is possible that two families who were completely independent of each other chose the same surname. It is also possible that the two families that started the different branches of this tree were related but we just cannot confirm this. The fact that my one loose branch starts in Arum and the rest of the tree goes back to Wommels, which is not all that far away, supports the theory that the families were related somehow. If you want to add to this research, find Taede Aukes (1615) and Wiebe Jans Hieminga & Saakje Gerbens as those are the two current starting points for the separate branches.
Hieminga or Hiemenga?
While browsing through the various documents the surname is spelled several ways. I have come across persons who are listed as Hieminga on their birth certificate but as Hiemenga on their death certificate. I think this just reflects individual preferences and spelling mistakes by officials. I have come to the conclusion that this is the same surname. Throughout this family tree I have consistently spelled the name with an ‘i’ as in my own passport.
Origin of the name?
‘Hiem’ is Friesian for ‘erf’, or the grounds around a farm, specifically the bit surrounding the main building. The ending ‘inga’ just means ‘comes from’. So the person who chose this surname felt that he came from the grounds of the farm. There is one theory that states that this was because he was an illegitimate child, born from a dalliance between the wealthy farmer and a woman of lower class who lived and worked on the farm. In this story the original surname he chose was ‘Donia’ as that was the name of the farmer, but his family would not allow this. Recently, I also found instances in newspaper articles where they referred to the ‘Hieminge’ as meaning the yard around the farm building.
‘Everybody named Hieminga is related to each other’
I cannot remember who said this first but I have heard it a few times during my youth and it got me thinking. By the time the internet made geneaology searches possible and a lot easier I started with one database, just to see where it would get me. The family tree has grown and grown from there on but so far I have not been able to confirm the above statement. Trawling through all these family files you will most likely find the same thing I have found: next to the main Hieminga tree, there is a subset of families that dates back a long way to 1749 in Arum, a small town in Friesland, but there the trail runs cold. Currently the data I have does not enable me to link this group of Hiemingas to the rest of the tree.
Surnames in The Netherlands
The decision was taken between 1799 and 1815 that everyone should have a surname, if you didn’t have one, you had to choose one. It is possible that two families who were completely independent of each other chose the same surname. It is also possible that the two families that started the different branches of this tree were related but we just cannot confirm this. The fact that my one loose branch starts in Arum and the rest of the tree goes back to Wommels, which is not all that far away, supports the theory that the families were related somehow. If you want to add to this research, find Taede Aukes (1615) and Wiebe Jans Hieminga & Saakje Gerbens as those are the two current starting points for the separate branches.
Hieminga or Hiemenga?
While browsing through the various documents the surname is spelled several ways. I have come across persons who are listed as Hieminga on their birth certificate but as Hiemenga on their death certificate. I think this just reflects individual preferences and spelling mistakes by officials. I have come to the conclusion that this is the same surname. Throughout this family tree I have consistently spelled the name with an ‘i’ as in my own passport.
Origin of the name?
‘Hiem’ is Friesian for ‘erf’, or the grounds around a farm, specifically the bit surrounding the main building. The ending ‘inga’ just means ‘comes from’. So the person who chose this surname felt that he came from the grounds of the farm. There is one theory that states that this was because he was an illegitimate child, born from a dalliance between the wealthy farmer and a woman of lower class who lived and worked on the farm. In this story the original surname he chose was ‘Donia’ as that was the name of the farmer, but his family would not allow this. Recently, I also found instances in newspaper articles where they referred to the ‘Hieminge’ as meaning the yard around the farm building.
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