The origin of the name F(V)(W)ro((c)(k))lage

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Category: Historie
Published on Sunday, 08 December 2013 09:55
Written by Super User
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The family names Froklage, Vroklage and Wrocklage are old, very old and there is a relation for sure. These are facts. What is the origin of these names and what is their meaning? Are we talking about a family relation? We will answer these questions in this article. We illustrate these answers with a window on the lives of these families in the old and passed days.

Anyone who’s carries one of the names Froklage, Vroklage or Wrocklage did wonder about the origin of his name. Which’s not much of a wonder. It is a strange and nice sounding name and the meaning of it is mysterious. It's a name which seldom is heard. Many people make mistakes when writing it down. I don’t know what mistakes they make in the US, Canada, Australia and Germany. In the Netherlands people write funny mistakes like “Frotlage”, “Frohlage”, “Foklage”, Frollage and “Vollaage”. Also people don’t know the exclamation of the name. So one hear things such as “Froklaaszje” which is the French sounding version and “Froklaakhe” which is the German sounding version.
Two families: Froklage and Vroklage live In The Netherlands. The small difference in these names indicate that there is a relation and sure there is a relation: even a family relation but you have to dig deep in history.

What is the location of the origin of the names Froklage and Froklage
After a study of the municipal population registers we can prove that the family names Froklage and Vroklage are the result of wrong spelling of the family name Wrocklage. This family name Wrocklage is most often located in Westfalen, Germany.

Why they did spell their name wrong?
A few centuries ago most people could not read or write. So the administration registrated names by hearing Without the possibility of checking the spelling of the name. The German pronounciation of Wrocklage sounds in The Netherlands like "Froklage" or "Vroklage". This was exactly what happened when a descendant of the Wrocklage family, named "Hendrik Berend Wrocklage from Lingen, Westfalen traveled to the Netherlands and decided to stay there. When he went to the municipal population register he told the administration his name "Wrocklage" but the civil servant wrote down "Hendrik Berend Froklage". His son: "Berend, Hendrik Froklage, had ten children. One of these children: "Andreas" was registrated as "Andreas Vroklage" instead of "Andreas Froklage" So a new branch with a slightly different name, started to grow.

The exact location of the name
The location of the name Wrocklage is in Ankum and Vinten, near OsnaBrück in Germany. Two farms were located in those places, both named Wrocklage and in the early middle ages known as "Wrocklaghink". So people who carry the name Wrocklage, Froklage, Vroklage, Frocklage and even Freuklage have their roots in one of these farms.

History of the Wrocklagefarm in Vinten
The history of the Wrocklagefarm or "Wrocklagehof" is well documented. The reason is that this Wrocklagehof still exists and last but not least we thank mrs Wrocklage who lives here and studied the history of the "Wrocklagehof".

The Wrocklagehof in Vinten
In 1402 The "Wrocklagehof" appeared for the first time in written history. The "loan register" of bishop Heinrich von Holstein mention the names of "Wroclaghink" and "Bernd Wrocklage" The "Wrocklagehof" was a "Vollerbe". This means that it was not possible to split the ground: For example when the farmer died there was only one child that was allowed to inherit the farm, cattle and the ground. In 1390 there were 13 Vollerben in Vinten.
The farmer was called "colonus": somebody who settled on the farm and who did have to pay rent to a landlord who owned the farm and his inhabitants. The colonus was "schollenpflichig": He was not allowed to leave the farm without permission of his lord. By inhabiting the farm he had to take the name of the farm. So when the colonus arrived on the farm he did change his name to Wrocklage. When the cononus did want to marry, he had to pay an amount of his crop and mony to the lord to get permission to marry. When a Colonus did want to leave the farm forever he again had to pay his lord to get his permission. After leaving an ex-colonus mostly kept the name he did carry on the farm. A colonus also did have the right to stay in the farm the rest of his live when he was to old to be productive. When a lord did want to ged rid of his colonus, he could not do so unless he had very important reasons.

The family Wrocklage
Little we know about the inhabitants of the "Wrocklagehof". From the mariage registers 1787-1850 we learn about at least 5 male nametakers who did marry a female Wrocklage or did buy the Wrocklagehof. So you can conclude when your name is Froklage, Vroklage or Wrocklage you probably descent from someone who did live and work on the "Wrocklagehof". But when you meet someone else who carry the name Wrocklage you cannot conclude by thumb its family.

The meaning of the name Wrocklage
According the Mitteniederdeutsches Handwörterbuch by Schiller and Lübben(dictionary) "wrok" means battle or dispute and "lage" means a piece of land,location or place. So Wroklage probably means a disputed piece of land.