If you are a leaf on a branch of my Trill family tree...not much. In my 20 years of family research, I have never been able to get beyond my great-great-grandparents (and they were just names) with the Trill name.
Here is what I have known for years, just about the Trill name...
Ernest Trill, Grandfather
Born 1902, Ashkum, Iroquois County IL
Died 1977, Kankakee, Kankakee County IL
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| Ernest Trill, age 18 |
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| Evergreen Cemetery, Chebanse IL |
Henry Ubelus Trill, Great-Grandfather
Born 1855, Holland
Died 1938, Iroquois County IL
Died 1938, Iroquois County IL
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| Henry and Ernest Trill, 1932 |
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| Danforth Cemetery, Danforth IL |
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| Henry's naturalization record from 1892 |
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| Henry's death certificate |
15 years or so ago, I obtained a copy of the marriage record for Henry and his wife, Kate Wabbena. On it, Henry's parents were listed as the following...
George Frericks Triell, Great-Great-Grandfather
Antje Ubelus Tekstra, Great-Great-Grandmother
This is the ONLY information I have had for 15 years on these folks.
Then one day last week, I received an email from Cornelius Boekema. Truthfully, I'm surprised it did not wind up in my spam email box, since most things do, from addresses not in my address book. But thankfully, the powers that be, made sure I received that email that day.
To my complete and pleasant surprise, Cornelius has uncovered part of the mystery of where the Trill's really came from. He had stumbled upon my family history online at some point, and was interested in one of the names (Antje Ubelus Tekstra). He hadn't really found anything initially, but turns out that he began digging around again last week. That digging paid off for me, for sure.
Here is an excerpt from the email:
"...I found somewhere that you mentioned that Henry Trill was born in Haulerwijk, Holland on August 22, 1855. Haulerwijk is a village in a part of Feisland, Netherlands, called Ooststellingwerf. I checked then the archives for Friesland on the website Tresoar, and got then quite a surprise when I found the marriage of Geert Freerks Trul with Aukje Oebeles Dijkstra in Haulerwijk on November 3, 1839..."
Hold up.
Hmm... Interesting, right?? But Trul?? That's different! I figured it was supposed to be "Triell", since they were listed as such on Henry's marriage record, even though he was listed as "Trill".
He goes on to list 9 children born to Geert and Aukje (4 boys and 5 girls). Two of the sons were named Oebele. One died within a month of his birth. The other was born August 22, 1850.
Wait a minute.
Even more interesting! Wow!
Then he gave me Geert and Aukje's parent's names... My great-great-great grandparents.
Holy cow. This was all pretty overwhelming, and I don't think there is any way I would have ever found this out on my own.
And as if that wasn't enough... he goes and gives me one set of my great-great-great-great grandparents!
Wow. To go from nothing to this in a week, is amazing. And very exciting, too! :)
Okay...so back to "Trul"... I learned in a second email, that in 1811 the Napoleon Code directed every person in the Netherlands to adopt a family name. Cornelius checked the records for Trul, and found Freerk Willems Trul listed. He said that was the only person listed with the Trul name. He also sent me a copy of the registration. In it, you can clearly see where the name "Trul" (with possible accent mark above the U) is printed by the clerk. At the bottom, you see where Freerk signed "F.W. Tril" on December 27, 1811.
He says that he's found Trul being used in other records for birth, marriage and death after 1811. He continues to say that the name Trul is not Dutch, as we had always been led to believe. So while we came from the Netherlands as a Trul/Tril/Triell/Trill, it's possible that it's actually a German name.
Now...here are some little tidbits of info:
Ooststellingwerf -- Ooststellingwerf [ˈoː.stɛ.lɪŋ.ˌʋɛrf] is a municipality in the province of Friesland in the northern Netherlands. It is one of the municipalities of Friesland, where the spoken language is not West Frisian; instead, Stellingwerfs, a dialect of Dutch Low Saxon, is spoken here. (from Wikipedia)
Ost-Friesland -- In 1806 East Frisia (now called Oostfreesland) was annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland and later became part of the French Empire. Most of East Frisia was renamed the Département Ems-Oriental, while a small strip of land, the Rheiderland, became part of the Dutch Département Ems-Occidental. The French Emperor Napoléon Iundertook the greatest reform of Frisian society in history: He introduced mayors, where the local administration was still in the hands of autonomous groups of elders (like the Diekgreven, Kerkenolderlings etc.), introduced the Code Civil and reformed the ancient Frisian naming system by newly introducing family names in 1811. In the following years the East Frisians registered their family names, often depending on their father's name, area or (if unfree) master.
To my complete and pleasant surprise, Cornelius has uncovered part of the mystery of where the Trill's really came from. He had stumbled upon my family history online at some point, and was interested in one of the names (Antje Ubelus Tekstra). He hadn't really found anything initially, but turns out that he began digging around again last week. That digging paid off for me, for sure.
Here is an excerpt from the email:
"...I found somewhere that you mentioned that Henry Trill was born in Haulerwijk, Holland on August 22, 1855. Haulerwijk is a village in a part of Feisland, Netherlands, called Ooststellingwerf. I checked then the archives for Friesland on the website Tresoar, and got then quite a surprise when I found the marriage of Geert Freerks Trul with Aukje Oebeles Dijkstra in Haulerwijk on November 3, 1839..."
Hold up.
George Frericks Triell ..... Geert Freerks Trul
Antje Ubelus Tekstra ..... Aukje Oebeles Dijkstra
Hmm... Interesting, right?? But Trul?? That's different! I figured it was supposed to be "Triell", since they were listed as such on Henry's marriage record, even though he was listed as "Trill".
He goes on to list 9 children born to Geert and Aukje (4 boys and 5 girls). Two of the sons were named Oebele. One died within a month of his birth. The other was born August 22, 1850.
Wait a minute.
Henry Ubelus Trill .... Oebele Trul ... and both born on August 22? (the difference in years is fairly common...some people just didn't know what year they were born, especially if there were a lot of other siblings)
Even more interesting! Wow!
Then he gave me Geert and Aukje's parent's names... My great-great-great grandparents.
Freerk Willems Trul and Geertjen Geerts Moes
Oebele Cornelis Dijkstra and Tijsje Hendriks Veenstra
Holy cow. This was all pretty overwhelming, and I don't think there is any way I would have ever found this out on my own.
And as if that wasn't enough... he goes and gives me one set of my great-great-great-great grandparents!
Jornelis Jurjens and Akke Teddes (parents of Oebele Cornelis Dijkstra)
Hendrik Jans and Ferdu Jans (parents of Tijsje Hendriks Veenstra)
Wow. To go from nothing to this in a week, is amazing. And very exciting, too! :)
Okay...so back to "Trul"... I learned in a second email, that in 1811 the Napoleon Code directed every person in the Netherlands to adopt a family name. Cornelius checked the records for Trul, and found Freerk Willems Trul listed. He said that was the only person listed with the Trul name. He also sent me a copy of the registration. In it, you can clearly see where the name "Trul" (with possible accent mark above the U) is printed by the clerk. At the bottom, you see where Freerk signed "F.W. Tril" on December 27, 1811.
He says that he's found Trul being used in other records for birth, marriage and death after 1811. He continues to say that the name Trul is not Dutch, as we had always been led to believe. So while we came from the Netherlands as a Trul/Tril/Triell/Trill, it's possible that it's actually a German name.
Now...here are some little tidbits of info:
Ooststellingwerf -- Ooststellingwerf [ˈoː.stɛ.lɪŋ.ˌʋɛrf] is a municipality in the province of Friesland in the northern Netherlands. It is one of the municipalities of Friesland, where the spoken language is not West Frisian; instead, Stellingwerfs, a dialect of Dutch Low Saxon, is spoken here. (from Wikipedia)
Ost-Friesland -- In 1806 East Frisia (now called Oostfreesland) was annexed by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland and later became part of the French Empire. Most of East Frisia was renamed the Département Ems-Oriental, while a small strip of land, the Rheiderland, became part of the Dutch Département Ems-Occidental. The French Emperor Napoléon Iundertook the greatest reform of Frisian society in history: He introduced mayors, where the local administration was still in the hands of autonomous groups of elders (like the Diekgreven, Kerkenolderlings etc.), introduced the Code Civil and reformed the ancient Frisian naming system by newly introducing family names in 1811. In the following years the East Frisians registered their family names, often depending on their father's name, area or (if unfree) master.
After the Napoleonic Wars East Frisia was occupied first by Prussian and Russian soldiers since 1813, and re-annexed by Prussia. However, in 1815, Prussia had to cede East Frisia to theKingdom of Hanover, which itself was annexed by Prussia in 1866. (from Wikipedia)
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| photo taken from Wikipedia, Ostfriesland |
Haulerwijk -- Haulerwijk (West Frisian: Haulerwyk ) is a village consisting of about 3300 inhabitants in the municipality of Ooststellingwerf in the east ofFriesland in the Netherlands. (from Wikipedia)
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HaulerwijkFoto: © Beeldbank Steunpunt Landschap ZO-Friesland |
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| Haulerwijk photo from Tresoar |
I have searched online to maybe figure out what "Trul" means, since it was a common practice to give yourself the family name of something along the lines of your occupation. But I haven't found anything yet. I did find a new book series for teens called "Legacy of Tril" by Heather Brewer, though. I read the description, and in the series, Tril is the place...not a person. But I might read it anyway. :)
Anyway... I hope you find this new info enlightening and are at least a little bit excited about it! I am pretty sure I won't ever find any pictures of these people...but a girl can dream, right?
So a HUGE thank you to Cornelius for all of this info. I hope I am able to continue finding answers to this mystery...even if it takes 15 years at a time...
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