John Adams

1. Last name: Westhoff: Recorded in several spellings including Westhof, Westhoff, Westhofer, and cognates such as Westfal, Westhaus, Westheim, and Westheimer, this is a surname of Germanic origins. It is residential and translates either as the occupier of a house or probably a farm to the west (of the town or village), or it describes somebody who works at such a place, or it is locational from a place called Westhaus, Westhoff or similar, of which there are a number of examples in the Germ...

1. The oldest traced Abba is Thomas Abba, born in Kendal, Westmorland, in 1810. He married Hannah Harrison in the early 1830’s and was a Bobbin Turner (used a lathe to make the wooden bobbins used in textile mills). He enjoyed wrestling (as did his oldest sons) and has an entry in the 1840 Westmorland Gazette.

2. Thomas and Hannah’s children were: Harrison b. 1834, Thomas b. 1838, Agness b.1840, Mary b. 1844, Sarah b. 1849 and Robert b. 1853. All three sons w...

1. The oldest Hutchinson I’ve been able to trace is Henry Walker Hutchinson, who appears on his son John’s marriage registration, but there are no other details. John was born ca. 1837, so presumably Henry was born in the late 1700’s-early 1800’s. John became a Solicitor’s Clerk, living in Gateshead.

2. John Hutchinson married Ann Arnison of Cumberland in 1866 and was a Solicitor’s Clerk in the 1871 Census (and remained so through to the ...

1.The Potger, de Bruin and Oorloff families are intertwined over 4 generations in Ceylon, starting with James William Potger (a Planter) who married Maria Catherine Oorloff in 1857.

2. Stanley Potger’s sister Irene (Martha’s great aunt) married James Stanley de Bruin (Arthur’s uncle) in 1914. He was the son of Florence Grace Rosalind Oorloff. Stanley’s other sister Dorothy (also Martha’s great aunt) married James Lancelot Denzil ...

1. The direct Verschoor line is traceable over 15 generations back to 1540, and these early generations were under Spanish rule in the 1500’s. The Verschoors hung around the same area of Rotterdam for a long time! There are excellent online records of them available from the Rotterdam Archives. Recycling of names between generations is very common. For example, Willempje Blok’s father was Huibrecht and her mother was Leentje, and these became names of two of Opa’s younger s...