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Archiver > ALT-GENEALOGY > 2000-08 > 0965377436


From: "Lesley Robertson" <>
Subject: Re: on Genealogy Warning
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 10:23:56 +0200


"borray" <> wrote in message
news:7Ani5.565304$...
> typical:
> 1613 de borrai (french soldier) several times,
> 1680 borray,(jewish version) several times,
> 1686 till now borra (dutch version), many times.
>
> The name de borrai, borray and borra is not a common name in holland
> or in other parts of the world. It is very rare.
> Your are obcessed by the clerck ( typical us ?) and never a word about the
> discrimination of Jewish people.

Spelling in the 16/th17th century was a very flexible thing in the
Netherlands - I've researched quite a number of dutch families in my own
line, and have found a far greater degree of variation, without having to
bring in discrimination. As an example, I checked the 17th century entries
in the Delft city archives (http://www.archief.delft.nl/ ) for the family of
one of Delft's most famous sons, Antony van Leeuwenhoek. In a single
century, in a single archive, I found 5 different spellings - and yet there
is no suggestion that this family was trying to hide something. The same
thing happened to some of my ancestors who went to the dutch colony at the
Cape of Good Hope - Cronier (french huguenot) became Cronje, for example.
Again, they weren't hiding anything, it was just the dutch clerical system.

> Lots of Jewish people in those day (after1580 alva) changed for that
reason
> their
> name and religion but that was in europe not in the states.

True, but a name change would not have had any immediate effect if they
stayed in the same place, especially if they stayed at the same address
because verybody in their area would know them. For such name changes to be
effective, the family either had to move, or a lot of time had to pass for
the neighbourhood to change or the next generation to forget.

> This family lived for more than 400 years in the same city,
> this must be very strange in the mind of an american, sorry.

Please note that like many others in this group, I'm not in the USA. In
fact, I'm in Delft. It's also worth remembering that some things do not
translate well, and something that might not be offensive in dutch can
appear to be so in another language

> I only agree with you on the point that they came from abroad before 1600.
> Don't forget that the development of the us-society the last 400 years is
> totally different from europe and also the development of the clercks.

The longer I spend doing family history, the more convinced I am that clerks
were the same the world over - they were convinced that they knew much
better than the person about whom they were recording.
Lesley Robertson

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