My great-grandfather's born name was Dedrik, Americanized to Dedrick-- but he lived among "real" Germans who weren't Frieslanders, so it got spelled Dietrich on his gravestone. I always heard him referred to as Deke, and I'm sure that name was a badge of pride in becoming an American.
He was a master smith, machinist and engineer. A successful farmland speculator, he applied his traditional ancestral skills of wetland drainage and land reclamation to accumulate great wealth in Tazewell and Mason Counties.
"He owned and operated threshers, corn-shellers and a sawmill. His first machines were run by horse power but in 1889, he purchased a Buffalo Pitts steam engine.
Mr Velde, as a young man, pleased his neighbors by his ability to play the accordian for all the square dancing parties in the community. He never refused to play for these and all other social activities." (from Winona Pfander, "The Tees Karsjen van der Velde Family Record," 1950)
Deke van der Velde simplified the family name to "Velde" late in life, owing partly to anti-German sentiment in the U.S. in the years leading up to World War I. But he had always been a militant assimilationist on principle-- so much so that we lost the distinction between the Frisians and the Prussians who ruled the German Reich at that time, the very people our voraeltern had fled to this country from.
When Deke's grandson Robert Velde was a young officer seconded to the RAF in England in 1941, he learned to answer "Dutch" instead of "German" whenever a curious Brit asked what kind of name Velde was. The two words were not as interchangeable in London in 1941 as they were in America-- my father later came to find out that his ancestry was indeed "Dutch," and his ancestors spoke a language as different from German as it was from proper Dutch, Flemish or Danish.
He was a master smith, machinist and engineer. A successful farmland speculator, he applied his traditional ancestral skills of wetland drainage and land reclamation to accumulate great wealth in Tazewell and Mason Counties.
"He owned and operated threshers, corn-shellers and a sawmill. His first machines were run by horse power but in 1889, he purchased a Buffalo Pitts steam engine.
Mr Velde, as a young man, pleased his neighbors by his ability to play the accordian for all the square dancing parties in the community. He never refused to play for these and all other social activities." (from Winona Pfander, "The Tees Karsjen van der Velde Family Record," 1950)
Deke van der Velde simplified the family name to "Velde" late in life, owing partly to anti-German sentiment in the U.S. in the years leading up to World War I. But he had always been a militant assimilationist on principle-- so much so that we lost the distinction between the Frisians and the Prussians who ruled the German Reich at that time, the very people our voraeltern had fled to this country from.
When Deke's grandson Robert Velde was a young officer seconded to the RAF in England in 1941, he learned to answer "Dutch" instead of "German" whenever a curious Brit asked what kind of name Velde was. The two words were not as interchangeable in London in 1941 as they were in America-- my father later came to find out that his ancestry was indeed "Dutch," and his ancestors spoke a language as different from German as it was from proper Dutch, Flemish or Danish.
My great-grandfather's born name was Dedrik, Americanized to Dedrick-- but he lived among "real" Germans who weren't Frieslanders, so it got spelled Dietrich on his gravestone. I always heard him referred to as Deke, and I'm sure that name was a badge of pride in becoming an American.
He was a master smith, machinist and engineer. A successful farmland speculator, he applied his traditional ancestral skills of wetland drainage and land reclamation to accumulate great wealth in Tazewell and Mason Counties.
"He owned and operated threshers, corn-shellers and a sawmill. His first machines were run by horse power but in 1889, he purchased a Buffalo Pitts steam engine.
Mr Velde, as a young man, pleased his neighbors by his ability to play the accordian for all the square dancing parties in the community. He never refused to play for these and all other social activities." (from Winona Pfander, "The Tees Karsjen van der Velde Family Record," 1950)
Deke van der Velde simplified the family name to "Velde" late in life, owing partly to anti-German sentiment in the U.S. in the years leading up to World War I. But he had always been a militant assimilationist on principle-- so much so that we lost the distinction between the Frisians and the Prussians who ruled the German Reich at that time, the very people our voraeltern had fled to this country from.
When Deke's grandson Robert Velde was a young officer seconded to the RAF in England in 1941, he learned to answer "Dutch" instead of "German" whenever a curious Brit asked what kind of name Velde was. The two words were not as interchangeable in London in 1941 as they were in America-- my father later came to find out that his ancestry was indeed "Dutch," and his ancestors spoke a language as different from German as it was from proper Dutch, Flemish or Danish.
He was a master smith, machinist and engineer. A successful farmland speculator, he applied his traditional ancestral skills of wetland drainage and land reclamation to accumulate great wealth in Tazewell and Mason Counties.
"He owned and operated threshers, corn-shellers and a sawmill. His first machines were run by horse power but in 1889, he purchased a Buffalo Pitts steam engine.
Mr Velde, as a young man, pleased his neighbors by his ability to play the accordian for all the square dancing parties in the community. He never refused to play for these and all other social activities." (from Winona Pfander, "The Tees Karsjen van der Velde Family Record," 1950)
Deke van der Velde simplified the family name to "Velde" late in life, owing partly to anti-German sentiment in the U.S. in the years leading up to World War I. But he had always been a militant assimilationist on principle-- so much so that we lost the distinction between the Frisians and the Prussians who ruled the German Reich at that time, the very people our voraeltern had fled to this country from.
When Deke's grandson Robert Velde was a young officer seconded to the RAF in England in 1941, he learned to answer "Dutch" instead of "German" whenever a curious Brit asked what kind of name Velde was. The two words were not as interchangeable in London in 1941 as they were in America-- my father later came to find out that his ancestry was indeed "Dutch," and his ancestors spoke a language as different from German as it was from proper Dutch, Flemish or Danish.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
