Frans, dankje, for the fine info. If only Americans were as sophisticated as the Dutch! I spent two years in the Netherlands (never would I call it 'Holland') and came to know and love the Dutch people mightily. There is much to be taken from your point regarding the German-Dutch relations. I found that the Dutch can understand the Germans, but not the other way around. enjoyed your bit of history... Fithian ---------- >From: [email protected] (Frans L. Scholten) >To: [email protected] >Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.surnames.german,soc.genealogy.surnames.global >Subject: Re: BOEKENKAMP; DEU; 1836- >Date: Thu, Sep 23, 1999, 5:13 PM > >Re: BOEKENKAMP; DEU; 1836- > >On 23 Sep 1999 11:01:19 GMT, Herma Gumpert <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >Herma, > >Please realise that is better to use the correct name for your country >(and mine): the Netherlands. For others who do not know that: >'Holland' is only the western part of it, around Amsterdam and >Rotterdam. There are just two provinces with that name: North and >South Holland. > >Calling the Netherlands 'Holland' is equivalent to calling everyone in >the USA a "New Yorker' or everyone in Germany a Bavarian. Such a thing >is a 'pars pro toto' (the part is used instead of the whole). >So 'Holland' and Germany are not close together ;-) > >Some hundreds of years ago, there were only dialects, which varied >slightly from place to place. There were no official 'Dutch' or >'German' languages as we know them now. > >'Boekenkamp' sounds like an old East-Netherlands name to me, or >possibly a West-German one. I suppose that the part 'boeken' was >pronounced as the Dutch word 'beuken', which means in english: 'beech >tree'. > >Then 'kamp'. In the east of the Netherlands 'kamp' meant a piece of >farmland, used for crops (not a meadow).The word is still used in many >dialects. So I think, "Boekenkamp' means a piece of land (partly) >surrouded by beech trees. In the east of the Netherlands, some >centuries ago farmland was surrounded by fences or bushes (Dutch: >houtwallen) to protect the crops from cattle. To the contrary, the >meadows had no fences and cattle was garded by shepherds and little >children. > >Probably, the Boekenkamp family started out by building a house on or >right next to farmland with beech trees around it. > >Frans. > > >[email protected] (Frans L. Scholten) > > >============================== >Support free genealogy on the Internet! Join RootsWeb.com today! > > "Fithian Jones" <[email protected]>