What is this man's name? Egidius Hooftman versus Gillis van Eyckelberg?

Question

Dear G2G, 

In the Cromwell (of England) extended family is Anna Hooftman whose father apparently apparently lived in Spanish Netherlands.

Might there be experts in contemporary Dutch naming conventions available to help prove (or clarify) what his name was, and wasn't? Perhaps he legitimately had distinct names. Dutch names can be complicated. In the prose bios of our profiles it's presently described as both Egidius Hooftman & Gillis van Eyckelberg.

Cheers, Isaac

On 17 Dec 2023 Isaac Taylor wrote on Van_Eyckelberg-3:

Dutch names can be confusing to non-Dutch people. Is this man supposed to have originally been LNAB Hooftman and to have taken the name van Eyckelberg? (If so, why?) Why does his connected daughter's profile assert his name (or alias) was "Egidius Hooftman" ; is Gillis some variant or contraction, or are these unrelated FNABs? (Related questions: what are we trying to say when WikiTree calls that an ''alias'' as opposed to a name or nickname... is there an AKA evidenced in primary source records, or is this a conflation of distinct people by later researchers, or a cultural/translation misunderstanding between modern American or English researchers working in unfamiliar languages and naming systems? ) This profile and family group would benefit from the involvement of Dutch experts (or perhaps the colonial New Netherlands project group with familiarity with how Anglo/English records in this era distort Dutch names) to unravel the abundant misunderstandings... that are all over the internet. Thanks in advance,

Answer 1

Egidius is Latin for Gillis (or Giles in English), so the forenames are the same.

Answer 2

The archive of the province of Zeeland in the south of the Netherlands owns a diary of Steven Racket who worked for his uncle Gillis Hooftman in London (England), Antwerp (nowadays Belgium) and Middelburg (The Netherlands). He calls his uncle Gillis Ho(o)ftman. Scans of Steven's diary/bookkeeping are on the website zeeuwsarchief.nl (5624 Ambachtsheerlijkheden Oosterland, Sirjansland en Oosterstein 1559-2003, inventarisnummer 1741 Aantekenboekje (dagboekje) afkomstig van Steven Racket (1549-1591).

In the diary he writes about family and friends. In 1568 he probably mentions the birth of Anna Hooftman (Anneken) who was born 29 December 1568, eight o'clock in the morning, daughter of his aunt Margarite.

Diary Steven Racket

A Dutch Wikipedia page about Gillis Hooftman mentions that his ancestors came from Eichelberg in the German Rheinland. That explains the surname Van (from) Eyckelberg. There's a lot of interesting information on the Wikipedia page: Wikipedia about Gillis Hooftman

Comments

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