The letter below was written to Marie Volbeda in response to a letter she sent to Anne Volbeda

The first letter below was written to Marie Volbeda in response to a letter she sent to Anne Volbeda. Anne is the great-great-great grandson of Klaas (b.1800). Klaas is the brother of our great-great-great grandfather Dooitze (b.1798). That makes Anne our (~) 4th cousin. This letter points out the origin and meaning of the name Volbeda. Does this explain why so many of us are 'hard headed'?

Anne mentions his great uncle Herman. Below Anne's letter is a synopsis of the information that Herman put together.

Also below is an email from our cousin Jon in Tasmania (just south of Australia). Jon's father, as the email states, is the one who created this very impressive Coat of Arms, based on the story of the 'Folka Bolda'. Jon's email is odoacer@tassie.net.au. Please take a moment to thank him.

A. Volbeda
Nausaulaan 11
2264 CP Leidschendam

Leidachendam, 20 Augustus 2000

Dear Marie,

Thank you for your letter of July 13. Perhaps I am not able to send you more data about our family than I wrote to Nettie.

Long ago (I don't know when) I received "Het geslacht Volbeda" from Herman Volbeda, my great-uncle (he died many years ago). He was a professor at the University of Delft (a town in the neighborhood of The Hague) He was the son of Pieter (born 25-9-1869), who was a Colonel in the army (he died 30-1-1945). Pieter was a brother of Anne (born 2-5-1864), my grandfather.

So far as I know: the brothers Anne, Pieter, and Goderd left Friesland before 1900. They lived in several places in the Netherlands. Only Klaas (born 1867) stayed in Friesland with his children. I think that he is the grandfather in the family of your husband. (Editors note: Marie's research shows our g.g.g. Grandfather to be Dooitze b.1798, married to Trijntje Hayes Steenstra m.1822)

In the meantime I am an old man of 81 years, born in 1919. 0f course my English is not 100% but I hope you can understand my information.

The name Volbeda is very old Frisian. It originated from "Folke balda". In English balda means bold, and folke means folk. Translation: Volbeda means Bold Folk.

My given name is Anne. In the Friesian language the "A" in my name has a special sound as in the word "border", not the "a" of "and".

Concerning the introduction or "Het geslacht (family) Volbeda": Herman says that he could not find the name Volbeda before 1811. It is definitely settled that with the name-giving by Napoleon the next persons with their family the name Volbeda accepted: 5 brothers, sons of Claes Symons en Feikje Jams and also their brother-in-law. Probably these 6 men are the ancestors of all Volbeda's. The common ancestor would be Claes Symons, born on 27-9-1750, married with Feikje Jans te Witmarsum. He died in May 1788 in Witmarata (a village in Friesland). These 6 Volbeda's were of peasant class.

As I wrote to Nettie: I cannot visit you on your website for I don't have a computer (I am too old).

Dear cousin Marie, I hope I could help you a little bit. Excuse all failures I made, but I an sure that my English is better than your Dutch.

Sincerely,

Anne Volbeda

The first ancestors with the name of Volbeda were 5 brothers and their brother in law who took the name in compliance with Napoleon's decree of 1811:

Their father was Claes Symons and their mother was Feikje Jans from Witmarsum, They married in 1750 and Claes died in 1788

Jan Dooitzes Volbeda
b. 6-3-1767 Franeker
d.5-4-1841 Sneek

Trijntje Klaases
b.6-9-1768,Witmarsu
d.14-2-1830

The HJ Volbeda branch stems from Dooitze and Anne's branch stems from Klaas. A more detailed genealogy will be posted in the near future.

----- Original Message -----
From: Jon Volbeda <odoacer@tassie.net.au>
To: Volbeda, Marie <marie@volbeda.com>; Slotboom, Peter <gzls@wxs.nl>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2000 2:56 AM
Subject: family name

>
> Dear Marie,
> Sorry I took so long to answer, but I have an excuse, wedding of youngest
> son (in Sydney) visiting sisters from Holland and a lot of people who want
> to buy garden statues...
> About the name - I also heard about the Folk Balda bit, it would
> indeed mean something like Brave People or Tenacious People, it looks a
> little suspect to me. I realise that there runs a creative streak through
> us, but I find it hard to believe that sober farmers, mill hands and
> gardeners, living in the early 1800's, have that kind of philosphy.
> In my opinion they would have chosen simpler, more direct names, like de
> Boer, Smid and so on.
>
> Were you aware that our forebears' jobs were in those fields? Most of us
> seems to have been workders in "Oil Mills", that means windmills which
were
> used to crush rape seed, to make rape oil. Many also were market gardeners
> and teachers....
> As I wrote earlier my great, great grandfather changed his job
> from that of a market gardener to schoolteacher, his son (my granddad)
> became principal of a secondary school (HBS) in Rotterdam, my dad was an
> excellent commercial artist as well as heraldicus, whose career was cut to
> pieces by the war. I can't draw to save my life, but was quite successful
> as a photographer and computer "muck -a- rounder"", we were partners in
> camera/video shops in Sydney.
> My sons also have types of creative jobs- Mark R. went to university and
> got a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in video - he know works as a sales
> consultant in a firm that supplies professional multimedia equipment. The
> youngest, Jason M., works at Channel 7 national television (the people who
> do the Olympics) were he is a publicist.
>
> To come back to the Brave People bit, my dad also heard that story and
> produced a coat of arms for
> the volbeda clan, I redrew it and it goes below, this is a fully
> computerised version - I love Photoshop!
>
> The reunion in Sneek looks interesting, we'll let you know what we can do
> about it.
>
> I've never been to the USA, all I know about SD is that it is close to
> Mexico and has a very large naval base, I bet you know more about Sydney
by
> now than I do about San Diego, or aren't you interested in the olympics?
> We're not but it is noce to see both Australia and Holland do so well.
> It's hard to beat you guys of course, but we've tried and given you a run
> for your money (he, he)
>
> There are no Volbedas in OZ but us.....
>
> I wonder who Anne Volbeda is, as Leidschendam is not too far from the
Hague
>
> he might be related to my grandfathers' brother, Sieger, who lived I
> believe in Scheveningen. The only thing I know about him that he reached a
> very high age, over 100, and that he was a teacher also.
>
> I have to stop, but I'll stay in contact of course. We leave for Sydney on
> 10/10 and come back here early Nov. It is quite an involved trip, with the
> ferry and a fairly long drive from Melbourne to Sydney (ca 1000kms).
>
> The trip from the USA to here is not so long, my youngest sister is just
> "hopping" over for the wedding.
> Come and see Tassie, you'll be pleasantly surprised, it must be so
> completely different from your nick of the woods. You and yours are always
> welcome if you feel like coming over.
>
> Regards
>
> Jon & Martie