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ArchivesRe: Freij
in reply to a message by Linnea
The spelling looks Dutch to me. According to the Dutch Surnames Database, however, this surname seems to originate from an other language: most likely German, since Frei was among the related surnames listed there. So, in short, Freij would be a 'dutchized' spelling of the German surname Frei (derived from German frei "free"). Compare archaic (i.e. medieval) German frey (and freyheit, freyheyt "freedom") and archaic (i.e. medieval) Dutch vrey (and vreyheyt, vreyheit also "freedom"). There are more variant spellings (such as freijheijt for medieval German, and vreijheijt for medieval Dutch), since in medieval times, there wasn't a standard spelling and many people were not proficient in writing - but I won't go further into that. However, this definitely makes one see how closely related Dutch and German are, especially in medieval times.
Either way, in modern German, it's frei and freiheit, and in modern Dutch, it's vrij and vrijheid. You see that German has an f- where Dutch has a v-, which makes it even more likely that the surname is German in origin. It looks like one of your earliest ancestors originated from Germany, then settled in The Netherlands (or Flanders) - and after a while of living there, the surname became Freij (unless it already was Freij, as a medieval German variant spelling of Frey) - like I said before, there wasn't a standard spelling in medieval times). This kind of thing happened all the time back in the day. A surname's spelling only became permanent (in most of continental Europe) after Napoléon introduced the civil registry at the end of the 18th century.
But to make a long story short, this surname is most likely German in origin (and if not, then it's Dutch in origin - I guess it all depends on where your earliest known ancestor came from, long before one of his descendants emigrated to the USA) and its meaning is definitely "free".
Well, I hope that helped. :)
"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on... when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend... some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold." ~ Frodo Baggins
Either way, in modern German, it's frei and freiheit, and in modern Dutch, it's vrij and vrijheid. You see that German has an f- where Dutch has a v-, which makes it even more likely that the surname is German in origin. It looks like one of your earliest ancestors originated from Germany, then settled in The Netherlands (or Flanders) - and after a while of living there, the surname became Freij (unless it already was Freij, as a medieval German variant spelling of Frey) - like I said before, there wasn't a standard spelling in medieval times). This kind of thing happened all the time back in the day. A surname's spelling only became permanent (in most of continental Europe) after Napoléon introduced the civil registry at the end of the 18th century.
But to make a long story short, this surname is most likely German in origin (and if not, then it's Dutch in origin - I guess it all depends on where your earliest known ancestor came from, long before one of his descendants emigrated to the USA) and its meaning is definitely "free".
Well, I hope that helped. :)
"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on... when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend... some hurts that go too deep... that have taken hold." ~ Frodo Baggins
This message was edited 11/14/2010, 4:27 AM
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