History of the Azores and genealogy of some flemish colonists

[Atlantic Islander]

These files have been sent to me by a gentleman, Andre Claeys, who wrote them as a history of the Azores as well as a genealogy of some of its early Flemish colonists. Even though the text is in the Dutch language, his hope is that the names, dates, and places contained in it will be helpful to researchers and he wanted as many people as possible to have access to it. His sources are given at the end of the document, in "Bronnen."

These files were generously donated by their author in order to share his work with others. Unfortunately, I do not read Dutch, as I suspect most of you do not either. So, I cannot verify the contents or the validity of his work. Please accept it, then, in the spirit and intent in which it is given. Good luck and happy hunting!

The following are presented here as PDF files. These are the final versions of his research.

Flemings in the Azores since the 15th century Volume I (13.9 MB):

• A. History of Continental Portugal and the Azores
• B. History of Flanders, the Liberty of Bruges and Bruges
• C. 17 Luso-family genealogy of Burgundian-Flemish Azorianen

Flemings in the Azores since the 15 century, Volume II, (6 MB)

• Genealogical History of 17 Luso-Burgundian-Flemish families Azorianen Genealogies Part II, 4 to 16.

Flemings in the Azores since the 15th century, Volume III (2.9 MB)

• 17. Willem De Kersemakere (Bruges) Guilherme Casmaca (Azores) The Offspring Silveira (Vander Haeghen the family of William's first wife, deceased in Bruges)

Important correction regarding Willem Vander Haeghen by André Claeys:
De Kersemakere/Casmaca - An explanation in English that Willem Vander Haeghen, in fact is Willem De Kersemakere.

Silveiras Portuguese Nobility.This is a document by Andre Claeys and he would like to make clear that these Silveires are NOT descendants of Willem van der Haeghen (Guilhermo da Silveira). Like the other document, this one is written in Dutch but Mr. Claeys has provided some help to non-Dutch readers in the form of a translation of various words in the document into Portuguese and then to English. This can be found in the last three pages of the document, which is also a PDF file.

This file is Clarifications on the genealogies Silveira and Casmaca by Andre Ckaeys

Mr. Claeys wanted to add this comment: "Willem van der Haeghen was only one of the hundreds of knights, belonging to the gentry of Flandres. Not one single member of the Flemish nobility ever emigrated to the Açores. I added this text in my file 'Açores'. This must be explicitingly said. Nobody may be deceived."

source

[Atlantic Islander]

There is every reason to believe that people from other provinces joined the emigrants from Flanders, so strictly speaking, we really are dealing here with emigration from 15th century Southern Netherlands.

One of the more prominent ones was Joss van Huerter (Hurtere), later on in the Azores called de Utra (d'Utra, Dutra, Huerta). The town of Horta is reportedly named after him. He was the first Capitao Donatorio of Faial and Pico. Another famous Flemish emigrant Van de Olm, later known as Fernao Dulmo, settled Quatro Ribeiras on Terceira. A well known emigrant and early world trader was Willem van der Bruyn, known as Guilherme Brum.

Many more Netherlandic family names are hidden among the Azorean families. They are found on the islands as well as in the far flung corners of the world. The more obvious are: van den Berghe (Berge), Bormans (Bermans), Bulscamp (Bulcao), Brugge (Bruges), Van Can (Cao), Verstraeten (Estrada), Fabritius, Timmermans (Fabricio), Van der Goes (Gois), Govaert (Goulart), Greaves, de Greef (Graaf)? (Graves, Greves), De Groot (Grotas), Hustaerdt (Hustarte), Lem, patronym of Lambert (Leme), Van der Linden, Verlinden (Linde), De Lis (Lis, Liz), de Looze (Luis, Luiz), Van Praet (Praet), De Rouze (Rosa), Silvester (Silvestre), Van Rossem (Rossem), Van Aard, Aardrijk? (Terra, Terre), Teeuwen, Teewen (Teves).

French family names were prevalent in the southern provinces of the early Netherlands, as they still are in bilingual Belgium. Some early districts in these provinces currently are part of France, such as Dunkerque. The following French root family names in the Azores most likely are of Netherlandic origin: Bouillion (Bulhoes), Dumas (Dumas), Jacques, Jacobs (Jacques), Le Merchier (Lemerchier), Pegas (Pegues, Piques), Pernet (Pernet, with apostraphe ), De Ponte (Ponte), Santes (Sanches).

Other Netherlandic family names which reportedly have been used in the Azores are: Amalia, Andreia, Bartholomeu(s), Bode, Braamcamp, Bras, Brederode, Claes, Clara, Craesbeeck, De Haas, Donzel, Dores (short for Theodore), Everard, Gabriel, Gerardi, Gervais, Handel, Helder, Hintze, Langhans, Ledesma, Mateus, Matias, Mestre, Moller, Nicolau, Oldenberg, Oom, Pastor, Priest, Schander, Spoelstra, Ternate, Tilman, van der Walle. Many of these names are patronyms or matronyms.