Welcome! – to the genealogical website about the families Pareau and Dumont.
The aim is to gather and organise information about the history of our family. Not only the dates but (personal) stories, addresses and memories. Think also about the influence of related social movements and general history like the industrial revolution (first half of the 19th century), the French revolution and the possibilities of public transport of our predecessors.
At least 7 members of the family Pareau wrote books and articles. Overview of their publications. On this website you will find articles from old newspapers and official papers from cities where members of our family lived. The fixed photo above shows 8 of the 10 kids from my great-grandmonther de Calonne. Second at the left side is my grandmother Flore de Calonne.
History of our familynames
In the Netherlands there are a lot of different family names that have their origin in foreign countries, as the Netherlands sheltered many refugees and immigrants for ages and ages. The first Pareau, Jean, came from France to Amsterdam. He inscribes in the “Poortersboek” in 1683, at the time necessary to be able to work.
The first generations lived mainly in Amsterdam, most of them married into other French Hugenot families.
From the moment the first Pareau started as a church reverend, they spread into the middle and north of the country, north above the rivers.
The first Dumont, Charles Henry, is born in 1763 in Grancy, Switzerland. His family lived there for at least 5 generations after they fled France as they were also Hugenots. The first known official Dutch information was that Charles Henri rents a house in Utrecht in 1797, together with his fiancée, the German Charlotte Becker. They start a shop in colonial products, which lasts for over 150 years. Most members of the Dumont family were born and lived in Utrecht. This lasted about a century.
Not related is the Dumont family in the south of the Netherlands, they came from Bocholtz in Germany. The South Netherlands also houses not related Belgian Dumont’s.
The families Pareau and Dumont were bound by marriage in 1835. None of their 8 children married! Some members of the families kept in touch and the last living daughter (Helena Cornelia Pareau) proposed to our grandfather Han Dumont that he takes the name Pareau to keep it from extinction. This process of name changing lasted 2 years, from 1937 to 1939, and most of it was organised from Indonesia, at the time a colony of the Netherlands. Our grandfather was a civil engeneer there.
My grandmother, father’s side, was a member of the family de Calonne, coming from Belgium, French and Flemish parts. The website of de Calonne.
Brunsveld Keiser: our grandparents from mothers’ side came from the region Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands. Their families originated from there and before that from Nordhorn in Germany, a small city not far from the border. With the family name Brunsveld Keiser, there are several unexplainable changes: there is Keiser, Tjassens Keiser, Warmolt Keiser and Busch Keiser. Sometimes father and son had different family names. These Keiser families are in the Dutch Blue Book (Blauwe Boekje). This series of books contain the genealogy of important Dutch families (patriciërs) who are not noble.
When our mother Tienke Brunsveld Keiser was born, the guy (or young lady) at the birth desk of the city of Groningen made a mistake, so my mothers official (bureaucratic) name was just Keiser. Her parents did not undertake any action to change this, because: ‘she was (just) a girl’ who would marry and loose her name anyway.
Many Dutch changed their familyname, generally into a double name. More elegant and impressive. Often because a family bought an estate or a big farm and asked permission to add the name of the estate to their name. Sometimes a guy took the name of his mother next to his father’s name. Or a relative takes a familyname because there are no male heirs to continue the name. In 1811 the state registration of citizens starts and hereafter it takes much more effort to change your family name. Still there are mistakes with the accurate spelling of family names, but much less then before 1811.