VAN ESSEN Genealogy - Ceelen to van Ussen Name Change in 1811

When I started doing my genealogy in 1997, my Dad's cousin, George Van Essen, sent me copies of some of the materials he had, along with a note that his father said the family name used to be Ceelen. I didn't understand how that could be, but that tidbit stuck in the back on my mind.

I made several trips to Green Bay and visited Oconto, which is about 40 miles up the north side of Green Bay (the body of water). Oconto is where my immigrant Dutch ancestors settled in the 1860s and 1870s. I soon discovered that many of the early records used "Van Ussen" as the surname - censuses, baptismal and burial records, etc. So that was the surname of the immigrants and was the name they went by in the Netherlands. Their American-born son started using the more common Dutch surname "Van Essen" in his adult life.

Around 1999, I searched Alta-Vista (this was pre-Google) for "Van Ussen", and I was stunned to pull up this text file containing a transcription, in French, of an 1811 document where a fellow is declaring that he was changing his surname name from Gerard Ceelen to Gerard van Ussen! A researcher named Mark van Loon (turned out to be distantly related but not on this line) had transcribed a document that he had found.

Why the name change? Why is it in French? Well, in 1811, Napoléon was still expanding his empire, and the area of the Netherlands where my van Ussen line lived (Oss) had been under French control for several years. So all the civil documents were in French. There was also a push to put an end to the patronymic name system. Ceelen is the Dutch possessive of the name Marcel. There is a neighborhood within the town of Oss called Ussen. "van Ussen" means "from or of Ussen". So Gerard was leaving behind his patronymic surname and adopted a name based on his residence. And that's how and why Ceelen became van Ussen.

Years later, in 2011, I finally decided to try to get a copy of the original document. The first line of the text file has "GA OSS 1400 (Gemeentearchief OSS nummer 1400)" which gave the name of the archive and the number of the document. I contacted the archive via email, pointed them to the text file, and asked if they had that document, and could I get a copy. They scanned it and emailed it free of charge since it was such a key document in my family history!

There are three parts to this document. The first section is a declaration that this is an official name-change registry. The next section is the Ceelen to van Ussen name change. The third section is for someone else's name change and can be ignored. The French transcription and the English translation are below the image.

Here is a link to the high resolution 1811 Ceelen to van Ussen name change document (2480 x 3508 - 3.3 MB)

Le présent Registre destiné à recevoir les declarations des habitans de la commune d'Oss Canton d'Oss, Département des Bouches du Rhin, qui jusqu'à présent n'ont pas eu de nom de famille et de prenoms fixes; contenat seize feuillets, a été coté et paraphé par nous Président du tribunal de premiere instance de l'arrondissement de Bois le duc               Bois le duc le 13 Decembre 1800 et onze               [signed:] H. Bouren Par devant nous Maire de la commune d'Oss Canton d'Oss Département des Bouches du Rhin Arrondissement de Bois le Duc s'est présenté Gerard Guillaume Ceelen, lequel a declaré qu'il adopte le nom de Gerard van Ussen, qu'il a cinq fils et deux filles savoir Guillaume, Antoine, Uwe Jean et Thierry, les filles Marie et Gerardine et a signé avec nous le vingt sept Decembre mille huit cent onze               [signed:] geradus van ussen               [signed:] Le Maire d'Oss J van Gherts

This Registry intended to receive declarations from the inhabitants of the town of Oss, Canton of Oss, Department† of Bouches du Rhin, who until now had no fixed names for the surname and first names; containing sixteen pages, has been listed and initialed by us President of the Court of First Instance of the district of Bois le duc               Bois le duc 13 December 1800 and eleven               [signed:] H. Bouren Before we Mayor of the town of Oss, District of Oss, Department† of Bouches du Rhin District of Bois le Duc comes forward Gerard William Ceelen, who declared that he is adopting the name Gerard van Ussen, that he has five sons and two daughters namely William, Anthony, Uwe Jean and Thierry, daughters Marie and Gerardine and has signed with us on 27 December 1811               [signed:] geradus van ussen               [signed:] Mayor of Oss J van Gherts † A Department is equivalent to an American State.