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Archiver > Dutch-Colonies > 2000-04 > 0954711444


From: "Ruth Piwonka" <>
Subject: Re: Stadt Huys
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 17:37:24 -0400
References: <20000402205810.53332.qmail@hotmail.com>



Rick --

> .... Any idea what "Wijck" means?
** 'wijk' or 'wyk' had two meanings 1] a retreat or refuge; or 2] a ward,
quarter, or parish.
(Also there is a verb 'wyken' = to retreat.)

The second meaning turns up in names like Beverwyk and Wiltwyk -- and
sometimes in late seventeenth and early eighteenth century Albany, I believe
there were references to the 1st and 2nd wyks / wards of the city. Itwas a
civic term. But seemingly it can also have the meaning of 'de buurt',
means 'neighborhood' or 'in the company of neighbors'.

My
> ancestor, Pieter Claesen, took the name Wyckoff (Wijckhoff) when the
English
> made all the Dutch come up with surnames.
** Seems to me that the first meaning, 'a retreat or refuge' fits better
with 'yard'.

SOURCE: Samuel Sewell's English Dutch / Dutch English Dictionary, 1749 ed.

Ruth Piwonka
Kinderhook NY

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