When Dutch people arrived in the United States or other English-speaking countries, often their names got changed. This was either done on purpose, to make the name easier to write and remember, or by accident because the clerk didn't know how to spell the name and wrote it down phonetically. For this reason, a single family name can often be found in many different spellings in different documents.

This article gives an overview of the types of changes that names underwent and also gives a list of English versions of Dutch last names. This list is not complete and even for the names that are listed, chances are that many people with those names used even more exotic variants as well.

Common changes

Some of the Dutch names follow a predictable pattern when turned into English:

• Prefixes often get stuck to the name: ten Pas becomes Tenpas, de Jong becomes Dejong.
• Names ending in -ink sometimes change to -ing: Abbink becomes Abbing, Lansink becomes Lansing.
• V becomes F or PH: Veenhuis becomes Feenhouse, Vink becomes Fink or Phink.
• -kk- becomes -ck-: Blekkink to Bleckink.
• An open -e- becomes -a-: Resink to Rasink, Menink to Manink
• -els becomes -les: Wubbels becomes Wubbles.
• Parts of the name that are a noun are translated: -huis becomes -house, -kamp becomes -camp. For example 'Nijenhuis' becomes 'Newhouse'.
• Names derived from occupations get translated: Bakker becomes Baker, Kuiper becomes Cooper, Konings becomes King.

List of Americanizations

This list gives Dutch names and spellings of those Dutch names as encountered in American documents.

Last week, my friend Mary Risseeuw from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and I gave a presentation at the International Congress for genealogical and heraldic Sciences in Maastricht. The title was "We're all fresh and healthy. Emigration from the Netherlands to the United States in the 19th century. The slides are now available online.

I've just added a Dutch genealogy store to the site. In this store, visitors can buy books, DVDs and prints about Dutch genealogy, history and culture. I've selected publications that I think would benefit somebody researching his Dutch roots. The store is powered by Amazon. This website receives a commission for all sales, enabling this website to remain free.

Many Dutch family names have prefixes like 'de' or 'van'. They have a special role in the Dutch family name which you have to be aware of when researching names with prefixes.

Marriage records are a part of the civil registration. Marriage records contain the following information:

• Name, age, profession and place of birth and residence of the bride and groom
• Names of their parents, and if they are still alive their professions and place of residence
• If any: names of previous spouses (either divorced or deceased)
• Name, age, profession and place of residence for 4 witnesses

Drenthe is a province in the north of the Netherlands. It borders on the province of Groningen in the North, Germany in the east, Overijssel in the south and Friesland in the west.

The capital city of Drenthe is Assen. Other large towns are:

• Emmen
• Hoogeveen
• Meppel

Gerrit Hendrik te Kolstee emigrated from Winterswijk to the United States in 1848 together with his wife and three children. During his trip, he kept a diary that still exists today. The family settled in Clymer, NY.

After World War II was over, many people wanted to start a new life across the ocean. Five years of war had destroyed the Dutch economy, and it would take years to recover. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many Dutch people emigrated to Australia, Canada and the United States.