It's been nearly three and a half centuries since our Dutch immigrant ancestors obeyed what must have amounted to a gubernatorial directive to attach a "surname" to the traditional patronym being used for identification purposes during that era. And, for the first two centuries thereafter, surname derivatives of "Borculo" flourished among us like dust mites in a throw rug. In fact, not only did our ancestors "go forth and multiply", but our surname likewise multiplied with every census, tax list, and transaction English-speaking clerks recorded on behalf of our forefathers, who more often than not, just used the 24th letter of the alphabet in lieu of a signature. The proliferation of spellings seemed almost endless to family researchers like myself, at least until the fruits of public education brought some useful consistency to our predecessors efforts at self-identification, as well as our own current efforts to track them.
Unfortunately, the 180 years between the arrival of Willem and Harmen Janse van Borculo and the stabilizing effect public education had on signature identification was far too late to prevent numerous permanent phonetic variations, called alliterations. This period of general illiteracy is also to blame for many of our ancestors developing an understandable detachment with their Dutch origins. In particular, some Bartlow descendants still resist the mountains of evidence supporting the fact all Bartlow lines in the U.S. prior to 1840 are traceable to Harmen Janse van Borculo.
Having already introduced you to the roots of our ancestral "attachment" to "Van Borculo" surname groups, it is time to familiarize everyone with the now "detached" European surname, Lubberdinck, and what we have learned so far about it.
Unfortunately, the exact origins of the Lubberdinck surname is not, as yet, well known to most of us. Our two primary European contacts bearing this surname may be in a better position to research the name locally, but they, too, are hoping to find new sources to extend their knowledge beyond what Hendrick Slok gave us in his Oct.1984 treatise entitled,"The Dutch Ancestry of the Van Barkeloo Family in Early Kings County, New York; In the Netherlands", (NYGBR,Vol.115,No.4,pp.193-197).
By now, Slok's research is enduringly familiar to those of us who have succeeded in traversing the alliterative minefields back to one of the brothers van Borculo. It is interesting to note that neither of the two best known published researchers on this line could agree upon a single spelling to represent the most common direction the surname took after its arrival. This may be partly due to the fact neither genealogist admitted to having any ties to the line and thus were not aware of the most common surname spelling among its many branches.
Barent Lubberdinck, grandfather of the immigrant brothers, was born ca.1560-1565, for those not familiar with Henrick O. Slok's findings. Barent represents the earliest known Lubberdinck ancestor of Willem and Harmen Janse van Borculo, brothers and sons of Jan Berntse Lubberdinck of Geesteren, Gelderland, Netherlands.
Andreas Lubberdinck, a young man residing in Bocholt, Westphalia, Germany, contacted me in the summer of 1996, and we began exchanging data. Several years ago, Andreas found evidence of the Lubberdinck name in tax records from the late 1400's in Niedersachsen, Germany. Hans Lubberding, a psychiatrist residing in Amsterdam,Netherlands, is another more recent contact seeking information about his U.S. cousins, and his surname origins.
During the late 1970's, I was contacted by a Mary Barkuloo Podea,Ph.D., of New York City, regarding my research on Van Borculo families. Dr. Podea had, while attempting to trace her own surname back to its origin, compiled several generations of the landed family that occupied Castle Borculo for more than 800 years. Apparently, that family's oldest known ancestor received his grant in 969 A.D. and the family managed the plantation, and the Castle Borculo, until it was torn down in the late 1700's. Despite her useful academic contributions to our background knowledge of Borculo, neither she nor anyone else to-date has succeeded in finding a connection between our Lubberdincks, and the Van Borculo family. In contrast to the near millenium of barons and dukes of Castle Borculo, the Lubberdincks appear to be Johnny-come-lately's to the area, with no traceable presence there prior to 1500, at least that we're aware of at this time. This does not mean they weren't there, nor that these two families couldn't have intermarried. It just suggests there is no documentation available that it ever happened, particularly in the last 400 years.
As mentioned, from the limited localized research performed by Andreas, based upon those previously mentioned 14th to 15th century tax records, evidence suggests the Lubberdincks drifted into Gelderland from the Niedersachsen, Germany region. In addition, I've discovered books on European peerage which offer evidence the Lubberdinck surname is a branch derivative of Luebber, and, among the many associated variations are the Leoprechting and Leuprechting lines. It is not difficult envisioning the minor alliterative variation separating Lubberdincks from the Leuprechtings. Among the coats-of-arms listed in the massive volume of entitled and landed European families, there are two Leoprechting and three Lubberdinck lines with distinctly differing shields, each owing the development of their registered armorial trademarks to early landowning noblemen from differing locales. The above-mentioned Coats-of-Arms illustrated therein represented branches of Lubberdinks from Westphalia(Germany), Gelderland(Netherlands), and Austria. From this one can presume more than one Lubberdink family, probably during the Middle Ages, had an ancestor achieve landed nobleman status. Having such status would have provided Lubberdincks with the necessary social standing to intermarry with other landed families, including, perhaps, the residents of Borculo Castle.
From time to time, as further research uncovers more history and background regarding the Lubberdinks of Gelderland, and Westphalia, this page will be edited as quickly as possible in our effort to share those findings.
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