Off course they did.
Here my family history.
My family history started around 1600 or earlier in a place called Nadorst nearbij Bremen in north Germany. Nadorst was a small farmer settlement started from a little place called Etzhorn. Nadorst is a subburb of Oldenburg now.
In 1648 Talke Rowold and Johan Heinrich Wallies married in the Lubertuskirche (Lubertus church) in Nadorst. This church still exist, not in the form then off course. Nadorst must be a small settlement with inhabitants that were called "Huerleuten" (poor tenant farmers).
There no official record of a farm which relates to Talke Rowold or Johan Wallies. But later there are records of farms owned by family Wallies or Rowold. The name was first mentioned in the archives of Oldenburg. I quote a article about the Rowold-family in the "Oldenburgische Hauskalender" of 1946.
The church book of Rasteder states first in 1632 about Rowolds in Hanshaufen-Loh and the church books from Oldenburg mentioned in 1657 the domicile of Rowold's in Donnersschwee, Ohmstede and Etshorn. It is probably the family in Etzhorn that are the roots of my dutch Rowold family. In another archive (Oldenburger Landesarchiv) we find the name Rowold, somethimes written as Rowolt, Rohwoldt, Rodewolt or Rowolhlt for the first time as a witness in a purchase deed in 1393. More important is what a man named Schloiser had written in his "Staatsbeschreibung" also in the Statearchives of Oldenburg: "Rowold(,s) lived near Seggern in Amte Upen (the town Upen), where Johan and Arend Rodewolt, Knapen (=nobility) already were living. Their shield were three green clover-leafs with a stem on a red field with a helmet. The helmet is covered with festoons in red, white and green".
Hundred years later (in 1596) there is a Johan Rohwolt in the list of the nobility of Oldenburg. Together with nobility from Reesen, Fykensolt and other places he was quarrelling with the Earl Anton of Oldenburg. Even the Emperor was involved in the quarrel and he chooses the side of Earl Anton. According to the cronics of Hamelman these noblemen were slain by Earl Anton of Oldenburg in a fight near Tungeln some years later. The Rowold's together with the other nobleman from Oldenburg had lost all their possessions and their nobility in this fight with the mighty Earl Anton.
We find Rowold's back as totally pauperized small farmers (kleine K�ter) in the parish registers of the villages Rastede and Oldenburg in the middel of 16th century.
From 1700 on we find the Rowold as small farmers (K�ter, Brinksitzer) in the
high sandy grounds between Oldenburg and Varel on what is called the 'Ammerische Geest' in small still existing villages of Donnerschwee, Ohmstede, Ipwege, Nadorst, Esashorn, Sankhausen, Beckhausen und Jaderberg. Some people became woodworkers besides their poor agriculture living. We find a lot of woodworkers (Zimmerleute) and carpenters (H�ltje) under the Rowold's and in some families the job as a carpenter goes from father to son for ages.
The name Rowold or Rodewald literally means "Waldroder" or 'wood exploiter'.
Other ethmologen derive the name Rowold from the old german name 'Grodowald' in old saxon 'he that wants glory'. It's likely that Rowehls in Stedingen are related with Rowold's and the blood-relationship between the Rowohlt's from Bremen and the Rowold's from Oldenburg is not proven but likely. In the last two hundred years the Rowold's has spread their wings but are still concentrated in the Oldenburger region but you will find them also around Bremen, Hamburg and in the Harz region.
We have the small notice in the parish book of the Lambertini church were Talke Rowold and Johann Heinrich Wallies married. They got seven children, six boys of which one died in his infancy and one daugther. All children have the family name of their mother Rowold and not of their father. Rowold was the name of the farm (Hoffname) and this name lasted long. It was common pratice in the Kingdom of Hanover until 1866 and later around 1900 and from 1930 on that families use the farmname. Even now families use the farm name as family name even they have officially another family name during the last hunderd years.
There is no evidence that a farm named Rowold really existed, but in Nadorst the famliy names Wallies and Rowold are common are small farm owners. The existence as farmers from Nadorst didn't last long. Probably was the farm to small to feed the whole family and the system of heir was such that the oldest son would inherit the whole farm. The brothers Gerhard, Hermann and Oltman became 'huerleute'. That ment they where hired by their brother or by other farmers. There were some options: to work for other farmers in the surrounding or join the trek to Holland (Hollandgangerei) as farmerhand or an other occupation.
Why and when Gerhard, Hermann and Oltman decided to go to Holland as bricklayers we will never know, but on the 21th of april in the year 1780 the 26 year old Gerhard married Hendrika van Galen in Amsterdam. Their first son was born in 1782. Gerhard was the oldest but not the most important member of the family. His younger brother Hermann was bricklayer foreman according to his death certificate. The youngest brother Oltman and Gerhard were mentioned as bricklayers only. On the death certificate of Gerhard (who changed his name to the dutch Gerrit) both brothers stated Nadorst near Oldenburg as birth-place. Sometimes it's confusing because in the death certificate of Oltman the neighbours stated as birth-place 'from Wallies' which is a reference to his fathers family.
The whereabouts of the family are a little vague, but we have a copy of Hermann his Oldenburger birth-certificate made up in 1813. Hermann were 54 then and lived presumably more then 30 years in Amsterdam. Why the birth-certifcate was made we don't know, but it was the same year that Gerhard died. The only thing we do know that there was still contact in 1813 with the family back in Oldenburg.
We know the marriage dates of his brothers (Gerhard in 1780 and Oltman in 1794) and the place: Amsterdam. When Johanna Hendricka, Gerhard second daughter was baptised Johan Henrich, Gerhard's oldest brother was godfather and Margeretha, Gehard's only sister was godmother. They were probably attending the baptise in person.
What happened to the rest of the family in Oldenburg we'll never know. Unfortunately the death registers of Oldenburg were destroyed in a fire.
Will be continued