Oosterhout Name Study
Location: Worldwide, esp. USA, Canada, Nederland, Belgie, Suid-Afrika, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Dutch Antilles
Surnames/tags: Oosterhout Osterhoudt Osterhout
[send private message] and One Name Studies WikiTree [send private message]
About the Project
The Oosterhout Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Oosterhout name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Oosterhout name.
As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (English Oosterhouts), by time period (18th Century Oosterhouts), or by topic (Oosterhout DNA, Oosterhout Occupations, Oosterhout Migration Patterns). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.
The first documented person using the surname in North America was Jan Jansen van Oosterhout, who was first found in the marriage records of the Old Dutch Church in New York City in the 1650's. There have been at least two other immigrant Oosterhout groups to settle in the United States (and not including the Oosterhouse group), one during the 19th century, and the other in the 1920s. Before we continue making assumptions that may or may not be correct about the origins of the first progenitor in America, be aware that I was surprised this past year to learn that there are two different Dutch towns by the name of Oosterhout.
The one that most people know about is Oosterhout in North Brabant/Noord-Brabant, and the other is found in the province of Guilderland/Gelderland near Nijmegen, in the municipality of Overbetuwe. It's easy to make the assumption that someone with the "van Oosterhout" surname came from a town by that name. But it also may be that Jan Jansen van Oosterhout had no surname when he came to the colonies, as the Dutch came late to the use of standard surnames. "On 18 August 1811, Napoleon issued a decree, based on French law, regarding adoption of surnames."
He may merely have used the patronymic, Jansen, Janszen or Jansz, i.e., Jan the son of Jan from a place called Oosterhout. Unlike most of the other colonists, he was also referred to using the province from which he came, or might have come, as Jan de Brabander. Unlike the surname prefixes 'von' in German and 'de' in French, the Dutch 'van' does not necessarily denote nobility, but merely "from."
I have found through many years of my own research that there are an endless number of ways that the family has spelled its surname down through the years and generations, and I constantly find new ones. The list that I have on this page is by no means complete, and please feel free to bring new ones to my attention. One of my more recent discoveries is that some of my closest Y DNA matches on FTDNA are to men with the surname Easterwood, which is the English translation of Oosterhout.
As far as the use of the prefix 'van' and its spelling, traditionally in the Netherlands it is spelled with a lowercase V, while in the United States it has become capitalized. Here on Wikitree we attempt to create profiles giving the person's last name at birth, abbreviated as LNAB, and that would include the spelling of his name, so one cannot actually say that a person has misspelled his name. I've seen multiple spellings within the same document, and have seen branches of the same generation of the same family change the spelling, only to return later. My own second great grandfather chose to reverse his Christian and middle names and spell his surname Osterhoudt, which spelling he gave to his children (or tried to!) The others continued using the Oosterhoudt spelling that my own branch has used at least back as far as the last quarter of the 18th century.
Also see the related surnames and surname variants.
How to Join
To join the Oosterhout Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!
If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Geoff Oosterhoudt for assistance.
Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:
Pages of Interest
Here are some of the current research pages included in the study. Among the research pages, I also have a Y DNA surnames study on Family Tree DNA. I'll be working on them, and could use your help!
1. Oosterhout Surname Study on FTDNA
2. Extensive resource list used by the New Netherland Settlers Project on WikiTree
3. Fairly complete (but always growing) list of links to the marriage and baptismal records for Reformed Dutch Churches in New Netherland and surrounding area, along with other denominations
4. Wikitree profile page for New Netherland Settlers Project
5. Wikitree profile page for Jan Jansen van Oosterhout
6. Wikipedia article on Willem van Duivenvoorde (in Dutch...more about him below)
7. Wikipedia article on the Hook Alliance Treaty
8. Dutch research article on Willem van Duivenvoorde, who might be the original progenitor of the Oosterhout surname. When I have the time I will get this translated and put on here.
https://deoranjeboom.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Jb-62-2009-05.pdf
Ancestry, History, Culture
One of the links above takes you to the Dutch Wikipedia article about Willem van Duivenvoorde. If you cannot stumble through the Dutch, I suggest that you use Google Translate rather than using Wikipedia's own English version of the page, as there is far more information in the Dutch one than the English. Willem had a illegitimate son, Willem van Oosterhout, who may have been the first to use the actual name "van Oosterhout," as the Lord of Oosterhout.
In 2006 the city of Oosterhout in Noord-Brabant chose a version of the coat of arms of Willem van Duivenvoorde to use as the coat of arms for the city. (I have attached images of both coats of arms to this page.) One of my quests in this study is to discover if there is in fact a connection with his family back in the Medieval past. Even if that doesn't happen to be true, his family history is fascinating, especially in how it intersects with the rulers of Holland, Burgundy and the Holy Roman Empire at the time. He may have been born illegitimate and was poor after his father died since he couldn't inherit, but that did not stop his ambitions. He eventually became extremely wealthy and an internationally known diplomat. So all of you Medievalists please feel free to jump in!
Membership
Related Surnames and Surname Variants
Oosterhoudt, Oosterhout, Osterhoudt, Osterhout, Ousterhout, Ousterhoudt, Osterhaut, Oosterwout, Oosterhowt, Oosterhoud, Oosterout, Oostrout Oostrouth, Oosterhouse, Osterhouse, Oosterhous, Ousterhoud, Osterous, Ousterhaut, Osterhaudt, Osterud, Oosterud, Vanoosterhoud, Vanoosterhout, Vanoosterhoudt, van Oosterhoud, van Oosterhoudt, van Oosterhout, Easterwood. (I may expand this list to include Oosterhuis, Oosterhus, Oosterom, Oostrum, and others, but further genetic studies will be necessary to determine whether that makes sense or not. The last name on the above list happens to be one of my closest YDNA cousins, and his surname is the English translation of Oosterhout.)
What's New
As I mentioned, I have a Study group on the genetic genealogy website familytreedna.com. I had my entire DNA structure tested with them a couple of years ago. that test is called the Y 700 test because it test 700 markers. When I got my results then I was given a confirmed Hepler group, which at the time was designated T-Y72110. Several weeks ago I got notice that another man had done the 700 test and came out as my exact match, although his surname is Easterwood, which coincidentally or not is the English translation of Oosterhout. We both now have a new designated Haplogroup, which is R-FTA28041. Haplogroup designations are not static, and it's very possible that this one will change again as more people test using the 700.
I also had a question in more of a cultural direction than anything having to do with genealogy. Do any of you out there with Oosterhout ancestry have particular Dutch family recipes or traditions that have stayed in the family? Mine has not but I would love to find some! The only Dutch reminders I have in my family are photos of the Delft blue and white tiles that my grandfather had on his fireplace in the Florida house that my mother grew up in, even though the Dutch comes from my father side of the family!
- Login to edit this profile and add images.
- Private Messages: Contact the Profile Managers privately: Geoff Oosterhoudt and One Name Studies WikiTree. (Best when privacy is an issue.)
- Public Comments: Login to post. (Best for messages specifically directed to those editing this profile. Limit 20 per day.)