Hello it is me again! :)

A few weeks ago I asked about the family name "Bottelberger": https://www.stamboomforum.nl/subfora/2/2/81853/0.

Since then I managed to make a few discoveries.

First: I am still not sure if the name comes from a toponym or is a variant of the original name.

What I discovered:

- Jacob Bottelberger who came from the Netherlands and was born 1612 was first written in court records in Bechtheim as "Jacob von Bottelberg".

Now: In Germany this usually meant he came from Bottelberg. But I also observed that in some instances the dutch van was "transformed" to a von. I actually observed just that in exactly Bechtheim (the German town they migrated to). A Wendelina van Duehren was written as Wendelina von Duehren in a marriage record. 

Note: The Bechtheimer might not have known how Bottelberg is supposed to be spelled -> Pottelberg; Pottelberg(h); Pottelberg(h)e. Everything is possible.

Some suggested the name comes from a toponym and I looked up places called Bottelberg/ Pottelberg in Belgium (there are none in NL I am aware of).

This was until I stumbled accross a church record (marriage) in Osthoven a neighboring town to Bechtheim of his (Jacob) aunt or cousin. It says: 

18, Augusti Eponsalia contrata sunt (sind ehelich verbunden worden) Johan (Jan) Martissen from Bartveck [=Bartwijk] in the Langenstraat, et Elisabetha Bottelbergerin de Grauve [=Grauwe/Graauw] in Seelandt [=Zeeland], coram testibo Jacob Bottelberger de Bechtheim, et Joannis (Johannes) de Jung de Osthoven. 

Translation 18 August Johannes Martissen from Bartveck [=bartwijk, in Langenstraat [in Holland] married Elisabetha Bottelberger who was born Grauve [Grauwe] in Seelandt [in Holland]. Witnesses were Jacob Bottelberger from Bechtheim und Joannis (Jan) de lung from Osthofen). 

Jacob von Bottelberg (how he was mentioned in the first court house record in Bechtheim) was now Jacob Bottelberger from Bechtheim.

A guy who does genealogy in his free time and also has Jacob B. as his direct ancestor, found out that he had a daugher called Catharina (I was able to confirm just that via church record myself: Her name and her father). He said that she was born 1651 in Graauw. But this could be wrong I have not seen the document with a birth date and place. But if it is correct Jacob and his family came to Bechtheim after 1651. In this case there would also be a birth record for a Catherina somewhere in Graauwe. Their brother Peter was born already in Bechtheim 1658.

So I guess it is highly likely that the name does not come from a toponym and they were from Graauw. Or is /was there a Bottelberg / Pottelberg near Graauw / in Graauw?

What do you think? What could it be? And where should I start searching in Graauw?

I searched for a birth record of Jacob on multiple webpages but couldn't find anything. Also the lesser known webpages for genealogy are probably not known to me. :/ 

I understand that it can be tricky because records got destroyed. That's what I read on this page: https://www.dutchgenealogy.nl/zeeland/.

Any tips, hints or contacts to people who are knowledgeable in this area would be a huge help.

Thanks for reading this wall of text :D

At this point I am really desperate... I wanted to solve this mystery for years now. 

Many greetings and ty in advance for any replies

Franziska 

voor de forumleden: voor een Duitse variant van deze vraag zie Familienname Bottelberger - Ahnenforschung.Net Forum

the name Bottelenbergh in Baardwijk https://salha.nl/bronnen/genealogy/personen/deeds/b8b85be6-6c21-ef0a-b26d-2f5f509648b2

the name Bottelenbergh in Baardwijk https://salha.nl/bronnen/genealogy/personen/deeds/b8b85be6-6c21-ef0a-b26d-2f5f509648b2

This seems too remote though, although very interesting. Is this "baronesse" I am reading there? And baron de Schirp? I know there is nobility with the name Bottlenberg in Germany and they have a Schirp branch. But they are not the same I guess? https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottlenberg_(Adelsgeschlecht). It would be very strange.

I found this :

Huwelijk op 26 december 1837 te Brussel (België)

Getuigen

• Jacques Bender, 40 jaar oud, wonende te Antwerpen, artiste musicien van beroep
• Frederic Heimbourg, 41 jaar oud, wonende te Anderlecht, négociant van beroep
• Jacques Jacobs, 33 jaar oud, wonende te Bruxelles, négociant van beroep
• Philippe Sophie, 36 jaar oud, wonende te Bruxelles, boucher van beroep

Bronvermelding

Rijksarchief België (Brussel) te Leuven (België), BS Huwelijk
Burgerlijke stand Brussel, Leuven, inventaris­num­mer 83975 / 0_0005, 26 december 1837, aktenummer 1085

Demogen Vlaams-Brabant en Brussel (project hubru19a)

https://gw.geneanet.org/a478?lang=en&p=2436+hans&n=van+bartelberg

@Renee2

Yes this is the wedding of the brother of my direct ancestor. A fascinating family. 

I also have seen the Van Bartelberg family tree (I am also in contact with the creator) but the name is probably not correct but how a german genealogist wrote it once. 

I have seen Bottelberger now spelled in many variants but in all those variants I never managed to track the family back to before Jacob Bottelberger. We all have him as our first common ancestor starting 1612. Before that... nothing.

It is really frustrating because it is so mysterious.

Elisabetha Bottelbergerin de Grauve [=Grauwe/Graauw] in Seelandt [=Zeeland]

Considering this I think Bottelberger might not be a toponym because we got that covered with Grauve in Zeeland as the Herkunftsbezeichnung / place of orgin so another toponym is not necesarry. So Bottelberger is probably a germanized variant of the name.

If you use openarchives.nl and search with *ottelbe* 1500-1679 you will find quite a few hits in the Belgium/Zeeland border area.
Without the date restriction there are even five hits in France for the name. It seems to be a pretty old name with first mentions in OpenArchives in 1506.

According to "Woordenboek der familienamen in België en Noord-Frankrijk" by Prof. Dr. Frans Debrabandere is Bottelberg is derived from Boterberg, which is part of Bekkerzeel in Flemish Brabant, just NW of Brussels. First reference found in 1390.

I am wondering about the reference: "Elisabetha Bottelbergerin de Grauve in Seelandt". First of all the main island of Denmark is also called seeland. Secondly: I can't find a place in Zeeland called something similar to Grauve. Phonetically it could be Grou (near Sneek in Friesland) and morphologically it could be Grave (Gelderland). Neither one even close to the Dutch Zeeland, leave alone the Danish one.

As we now know that Bottelberger / Boterberg(h) is a toponym you have to take into account that several or many unrelated families may have been assigned this last name. Typically when someone moved away from the place where he/she grew up, in the new area people would add the place of origin as a descriptive to someone's name. Which then later developed into a petrified last name.

Michaël

According to "Woordenboek der familienamen in België en Noord-Frankrijk" by Prof. Dr. Frans Debrabandere is Bottelberg is derived from Boterberg, which is part of Bekkerzeel in Flemish Brabant, just NW of Brussels. First reference found in 1390.

This is interesting to know. I am just wondering how this could fit together (see below).

 

I am wondering about the reference: "Elisabetha Bottelbergerin de Grauve in Seelandt". First of all the main island of Denmark is also called seeland. Secondly: I can't find a place in Zeeland called something similar to Grauve. Phonetically it could be Grou (near Sneek in Friesland) and morphologically it could be Grave (Gelderland). Neither one even close to the Dutch Zeeland, leave alone the Danish one.

I understand what you mean. However, they are surely not from Denmark as the chronicle of the town Bechtheim lists their origin as Brabanter - so they came from the Duchy of Brabant.

I think it might have been written wrong. Another user made the remark in this forum, that below Grave is a place called Zeeland: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Zeeland/@51.7207841,5.6901734,13.29z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x47c704f5ff95e29f:0x17e6260866d9a339!2sGrave,+Niederlande!3b1!8m2!3d51.7589248!4d5.7383579!3m4!1s0x47c71c94348d9fb3:0x3c774d4d91476eff!8m2!3d51.6971932!4d5.6733227.

But if there are hits in the Belgium/Zeeland border area - this is quite some distance to the Grave place meantioned above.

There is in Zeeland Nederland a place : Graauw 

Graauw

Dorp in Nederland

Beschrijving

Beschrijving

Graauw is een dorp in de gemeente Hulst in de Nederlandse provincie Zeeland, gelegen in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Het dorp had 930 inwoners op 1 januari 2020. Wikipedia

There is in Zeeland Nederland a place : Graauw 

Another genealogist who researched Bottelberger a long time ago, actually assumed just that. However, he stopped researching the line there. He just said "Oh they came from Zeeland and I am happy with this knowledge. I don't want to know more about them."

For a long time I went with Graauw as their place of origin. I even researched birth records in Zeeland. Never found one for a Jacob Bottelberger in 1612 (also researched plenty of variants to the name).

Someone else also mentioned that Graauw actually did not exist ("Het was water.") at that time and he was right:

https://zea.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Grauw

"Al in de 13e eêuw 'oorde de parochie van het ouwe durp De Grauw toe aan de Cisterciënzer Abdij Ter Doest, en laeter an de Abdij Ten Dunen. Het durp ging verlore in 1586. Nae 'erdieking van de Melopolder in 1682 en de Willem-Endrikspolder in 1687 ontstong het tehenwoordige durp. Het durp 'ao vroeher een haeven die via een kreeke nae het Verdronke land van Saeftinghe liep."

So I basically discarded this theory of orgin now. 

Btw before I forget:

As mentioned above I researched in the Zeeland area a while back. While I couldnt find a birth record for a Jacob, I discovered something else:

https://www.openarch.nl/zar:1e5c1dc2-8aa9-7086-3c5c-d668c706b70f

The maiden name of the mother of Catharina Ongena is van Brussel. 

The Bechtheim chronicle says that the families Bottelberger and Brüssel came from "Brabant" in the same year! Brüssel of course could be a germanized version of van Brussel. Maybe there could be a link and these are relatives. I can't be sure though. 

And also there is still this theory with Grave near the village Zeeland in North-Brabant to consider.