The Vanderkloot Story

Our Origins in the Netherlands Chapters

Origins of the van der Kloot Name

By Frederic J. VanderKloot
Thanksgiving, 2005
Remarkably, the first identifiable VanderKloot ancestor was not named van der Kloot. In fact, he did not have a surname, a common practice in seventeenth century Zeeland when two Christian names sufficed for an identity. The Christian names, usually referring to a Saint, were required for baptism in the Dutch Reform Church. Custom was to have a given first name while the father’s first name served as a second name. So, our earliest ancestor was named Pieter Lodewijk or in English, Peter Louis.

Although the exact date of Pieter Lodewijk birth is unknown (all local records prior to 1700 were destroyed by a 1940 fire), Mr. J.P.B. Zuurdeeg, the Tholen gementee’s resident genealogist, estimates it was circa 1660 in the city of Oud Vossemeer on the island of Tholen in the province of Zeeland. We do, however, know quite a bit about our first ancestor.

Pieter Lodewijk was a farmer and a man of property, the owner of three houses and 5 hectares of farm land-12.5 acres- just outside Oud Vossemeer. The location of his farm can be identified even today. He had two brothers, Lodewijk Lodewijk who fathered 5 children from 1701 to 1712 and Marinus Lodewijk with one son born in 1701. Marinus may have had other children prior to 1700.

Pieter Lodewijk married Marie Bastiaans and had a daughter, Lizabeth in 1701. Later, he married Anna Willems and produced two children, Marinus Pieter, the first of the Chicago immigrant line of van der Kloots, baptized on March 23, 1711 and Maria on March 10, 1714. Pieter Lodewijk died the following year on December 23, 1715 in Oud Vossemeer.

The first appearance of the van der Kloot name in Tholen records did not occur until 1743 with the marriage of Marinus Pieter to Martijntje Labans. Sometime between Marinus’ birth in 1711 and marriage 32 years later, the family adopted its surname.

In 1690 people in the provinces of Holland and Zeeland began choosing surnames that would assist in identification either by physical characteristics (short, tall, etc.), by occupation (baker, smith, etc.) or by location (a farm, a place, etc.). Many Zeeland families selected the location alternative, utilizing the Dutch words “van der” or “from the” in English.

While Mr. Zuurdeeg, the distinguished gray haired Tholen genealogist labors with the English language, he has some definite thoughts on the origin of the van der Kloots. Initially, he was puzzled by the family surname. Although “kloot” means mound or ball, no mounds or spheres exist on Tholen. Mr. Zuurdeeg initiated a research project discovering a small village named “de Kloot” in an 1845 geographic wordbook entitled the “Aardrijksjundig Woordenboek der Netherlanden”. “De Kloot” was located just north of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, a medieval city founded in 1184 by Henry I, Duke of Brabant.

Since Lodewijk was not a common Dutch name, Mr. Zuurdeeg believes Pieter Lodewijk’s ancestors arrived in Holland from Western Europe, probably Germany, in the early 17th Century as foreign mercenary soldiers. During the latter part of the Dutch-Spanish Eighty Year War (1568-1648) Frederick Henry of the House of Orange, the son of William the Silent, and leader of the United Provinces, successfully led the Dutch troops, largely comprised of mercenaries, retaking ‘s Hertogenbosch from the Spanish in a 1629 battle.

Mr. Zuurdeeg is relatively certain our ancestors settled in the small village of “de Kloot” that eventually was absorbed into the City of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. With the signing of the treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the Spanish granted sovereignty to the Dutch state and peace finally came to Holland that was in the midst of its great “Golden Age.” Sometime during this period our ancestors migrated 60 miles westward to the Island of Tholen and Oud Vossemeer. So the van der Kloot heritage began.

Fred Vanderkloot is the grandson of Cornelius van der Kloot and Gertrude Kaan.


Initial Web Publication Date: 03/12/2006
Intermediate Additions: 03/12/2006