Aeltje Cornelisse Cool - preserving accurate name

Good call. I just asked Private User for some guidance on New Amsterdam naming conventions since I am turning out to have a lot of significant DNA matches with Dutch families from NJ and Ohio and of course I know my ggg aunt married a Conover (van Kouwenhoven) and my ancestors lived and married with the Dutch Reform in NJ. That's one of my two major brick walls.

Do we have a place where we discuss naming conventions for Dutch settlers? I assume we do. I wonder how we can alert people who touch these families. Definitely should lock fields all over the place.

Hatte Anne Blejer
I've always been biased by approaching New Amsterdam from the Old World rather than working backwards from the present. Which is to say i use Dutch naming conventions (the one i linked to previously) for Dutch people in New Netherland.

If you are not aware New Netherland Colony was a commercial out post governed under the constitutional law(?) of Amsterdam. Obviously things get a bit blurry after 1674 when it becomes an English colony but is still culturally dominated by the Dutch. At some point there is a change but i personally don't start using "English" naming until i see a primary document (or very close secondly evidence) that the person involved actually used the name.

I know Ben Angel disagrees with my approach (or at least used to) but i don't see how anyone can argue the point prior to 1674.

The biggest problem for Geni is that most Americans (at least the newbs) assume that "grandma" changed her name the day she got married when that simply wasnt the case for some families well into the 1700s.

Bergen writes interestingly about the adoption of surnames as opposed to patronyms, i think it is in his Lefferts Family book but i am too lazy/disorganised to supply a link, sorry :)

PS the same "Grandma" naming issues are rife in the old European portions of the tree also, typically for the same reasons, so it's not JUST a New Amsterdam issue.

Sad that we can't figure out a way that when people touch those profiles, the naming conventions for that era / culture pops up. It's doable.

You begin to have records such as in New Jersey in the 1700s where it's clear they switched over. Also gravestones. Sorry I missed the link :)

I have been trying to be careful and preserve the Dutch naming conventions because I was merging in the Couvenhovens, Schencks, Lanes, and others and generally think I did okay, so I terrified I had touched this profile (I hadn't).

Since Jews had patronymics in Eastern Europe and no surnames and "two" first names, I'm pretty sensitized. Also from living in many cultures and having a linguistics degree, but I do need to look at the naming conventions link for a couple of points.

Alex, I locked her names. I did however remove van Couwenhoven van her aka. I'm sure it will however reappear before too long :-)

If people are born and raised in America most of them have no idea that there are other naming conventions in other countries.

It was a year or so ago when a new law in Belgium made it possible to choose if the children of a married couple officially have the surname of the father or the mother.

I read in the newspaper that most families in Belgium are still keeping to the traditional naming system. This law, will in some instances, cause confusion for genealogists in the future (and probably family feuds and hurt feelings)!

Alex and I worked it out pretty well in the profiles we worked on for New Netherlands, and of course I've always called on Ann's able guidance.

One thing to keep in mind is the legal issues "as well as" family issues "as well as" the religion. It is much easier now, with multi language modules; and the Dutch Reformed Church kept good records, some of which are even accessible. :). I'm told that Dutch was still spoken in some homes as late as the Indiana migrations.

But beginning in 1674, when New Netherlands was turned over to the British, names would "legally" be written according to British custom. You will see this in court records and wills. So ... Simply use both modules, of course.

I have several lines from New Netherlands. My favorite being the one Theunis Bergen noted as "possibly a fake name.". !!!!!

I have never been bothered if an early female Dutch settler used her patronymic, her father's last name, or her husband's last name. All that matters is that people recognize "its the same person". What does cause confusion is when a name is changed here and it totally messes up previously established links, as happened to me a few days ago. It took a while to fix it.

When the British forced the Dutch population to use a standardized surname, some opted to stay with their patronymic, others used a variation of their origin town in Holland, and some just stayed with their father's last name. Its not really that difficult to track a family through the RDC records and the indexes of wills.

Addendum: The best source I have found for Cowenhoven/Conover (regardless if spelled with a C or a K, with or without a Van) are the records complied by Tam Denyse Conover, and privately published in the 1980's by Ann Miles in two volumes.

Private User, if the woman in question changed her name then by all means we should use that name regardless of the cultural/legal norms.
My legal name is Alexander but i don't use it and i prefer others not to either which 99.9% of people respect but someone who doesn't know me would be very presumptuous to use Alex rather than Alexander don't you think? Especially if in 400 years time all they have to go off is official documents which all name me Alexander?

Are the two volumes by Ann Miles available online?