The patrilineality (male line) of the South African connection.

    Klaas, Tjerk, Marius and Klaas snr.

When my father passed away I became the pater familias of the Lammers family, both local and overseas, but unfortunately, it goes without a title.   

In the Netherlands in 1811 the Napoleonic decree made it law that the head of each family should register at their local municipality a chosen surname. This led to a large increase in newly adopted 'fixed' surnames. Particularly in the north and east of the Netherlands where many families had until this time not used permanent surnames. Rather from generation to generation they would adopt the male parent’s first name as a surname for the next generation and as a result, each successive generation would have a different last name (surname).
Clever man Napoleon, as it aided him in conscription for his many wars. The Schroor (tailor in Frisian) family on my mother’s side goes back to two brothers that were conscripted to go with Napoleon to Russia where general Winter reigned supreme and only one of them survived. Napoleon went to Russia with 680,000 soldiers of whom only 50,000 returned. A similar fate befell a member of the Lammers family who wisely turned homewards (deserted) at the first opportune moment and lived to tell the tale.

My uncle Roelof van der Zee, whom I had the pleasure of visiting in 2015 in Friesland, has provided much of the early family history that aided me in the compilation of our family tree that can be viewed here. Uncle Roelof passed away in 2016.

 

   
   
   

       

     Roelof van der Zee 94 years young