I have another surname that is puzzling me. My records indicate that Heinrich WEYERS (or Weyer HENDRIKS) was born ca 1680 in either Eppe, Germany or Netherlands, christened in 1700. He arrived in SA 1702 on the Oostersteen, married May 1, 1718 to (Elsje) Anna Elisabeth GERRITSDOCHTER, daughter of Caspar GERRITS (GERRYTS) and Elsie (Elisabeth) (PYL) SPELDENBERG. He was a soldier and burger 1714, had 3 daughters. Can anyone advise me whether he was in fact from the Netherlands or Germany? Sonia Toronto, Canada

On 12 Nov 2011, at 4:31 AM, Sonia van Heerden wrote: > I have another surname that is puzzling me. > > My records indicate that Heinrich WEYERS (or Weyer HENDRIKS) was > born ca 1680 in either Eppe, Germany or Netherlands, christened in > 1700. He arrived in SA 1702 on the Oostersteen, married May 1, 1718 > to (Elsje) Anna Elisabeth GERRITSDOCHTER, daughter of Caspar > GERRITS (GERRYTS) and Elsie (Elisabeth) (PYL) SPELDENBERG. He was a > soldier and burger 1714, had 3 daughters. > > Can anyone advise me whether he was in fact from the Netherlands or > Germany? > > Sonia > Toronto, Canada Epe is in Germany, but only maybe 10 kilometres SSE of Enschede in the Netherlands. The western border of German has been changed a number of times, even after World War I when a slab of territory was taken from Germany and added to Belgium in exchange for Belgium ceding a similar slice surrounding Dunkerk to France. (Its Flemish name was Duinekerke, "the Church on the Dunes", and its current name is Dunkerque, a curious hybrid spelling.) There are still a few Flemish-named villages remaining in France: for example, Marck, just west of Dunkirk; the village of Oost-Duinekerke is in Belgium. That change was made linguistic grounds, the population being more French than Flemish-speaking, but to this day perhaps 10% of Belgium's population is German-speaking. I don't know whether similar changes occurred with the Dutch border, bearing in mind that the Dutch were on the German side in that war, but Epe could possibly be of partly German character; nevertheless it is now in Germany. If you have a map, it's just a little way off the A31. It needs to be borne in mind that "Germany", as a political entity, only came into existence in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War; it was whittled down from around 360 separate princely States before the French Revolution to its present number of around 13 or 14. The main phases were: some amalgamations after the French Revolutionary Wars, more consolidation after the Franco-Prussian War when Austria was squeezed out because of its control of huge non-German-speaking countries, and the further changes when Austria, also on the losing side, was stripped of most of its territory after World War I by the granting of autonomy to those countries as Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, etc (and those countries have been further dismembered by ethnic squabbles since Soviet control collapsed). As an aside, there are also people known as "Pennsylvania Dutch": these are actually descendants of German immigrants. Indeed, the word "Dutch" has a clear etymological link to Deutsch which means "German". So both terms have to be used carefully in the context of the times you are talking about. Andrew Rodger rodgera@audioio.com