Welcome

Database:
This genealogy database contains research and information on some 4,000 (van) Osnabrugge, Osenbrugge(n), Ossenbruch (-broich) etc. people, including those whose names were pronounced and written (sometimes only slightly) differently over the past eight centuries i.e. the 70 different name variations, as can be seen in the scroll-box on the right.
Additionally, there is information on over 6,000 related family members.

Goal:
It is our intention to eventually identify all of the people by the names in the scroll-box and include them in our database, but our main priorities, at the moment, are the descendants of the (van) Osnabrugge, Osenbrugge(n), Ossenbruch (-broich) etc. families mentioned inside. If you have any information, you would like to share, please contact us here.

The name
All the (van)Osnabrugge, Osenbruggen, Ossenbroich etc. people (with all the different spellings) we have identified sofar seem to originate from two sources:

• Named after the town of Osnabrück in Germany. In previous centuries the Dutch called it "Osnabrugge" or "O(s)senbrugge (-bruch)" . Read here what the Central Bureau of Genealogy in The Hague has to say about that.

  New Family Names (Surnames).

  When, several centuries ago, people moved from one place to another, they took, or were given, a nickname or last name, which showed where they came from. Those names are called "Names of origin" (herkomstnamen). Foreign place names were often adapted to the new laguage. These names are called exonyms. An English exonym is a name in the English language for a place (a toponym), which does not follow the local usage (the endonym) e.g. The Hague for the Dutch town name Den Haag.

  Exonyms and endonyms are features of all languages. Numerous are the Dutch exonyms of "foreign" names of origin:
  (Van) Koppenhagen en Cobbenhagen; Van Breemen en Bremer; (Van) Osnabrugge en Van Os(s)enbruggen; (Van) Kleef(f), Van Cleef(f) en Cleven; Van Zanten en Van Santen; Van Gulik en Gulikers; Gresnigt; Van Keulen en De Keulenaar; Monshouwer en Van Monsjou; Cobelens en Koblens; Berlijn; Van Leipsig; Van Dansik en Van Dantzig; (Van) Praag; Van Oven; (Van) Brussel, Brusselaars en Brusselman; Van Rijssel; Van Doornik; (Van) Duinkerken; Van Komen; Van Halewijn; Eggermont; Grinwis; Van Cornewal; Van Londen; Van Milaan; Van Venetien; Van Toledo.

  Source: Namen van buitenlanders in ons binnenland door Leendert Brouwer.
  2012 - Jaarboek van het CBG - deel 66
  The Meertens Institute, established in 1926, has been a research institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 1952. They study the diversity in language and culture in the Netherlands

  Examples are e.g. the (van) Osnabrugge, Osenbrugge(n) etc. families, who moved to the Groningen area and a very large group, which developed in, and later from, Leiden in the mid 1600s.
  

Title: 't Huys Ossenbroek 1746. J. de Beyer (artist) Paul van Liender (engraver).
From the book: "Het verheerlykt Kleefschland" (The glorious land of Cleves).
This is a scan of an original engraving we own.
• Named after and developed from the Ossenbruchs (Ossenbroichs), which were an old noble family and were already mentioned in documents in 1242. They had their ancestral country estate and castle situated in the Lower Rhine region of Cleves (Kleef) and from there migrated to various cities in Germany and also the Zutphen, Doetinchem and probably Arnhem areas. It is very possible that in 1532 Nevelynck v. O. moved to Buren and became the patriarch of the van O. clan in Rijswijk (de Betuwe) . Read more about that here.
  All descendant scenarios are being discussed inside.
  

Census:
A census done in 2007 showed that (only) 1807 people with 15 name variations were alive and living in the Netherlands. More census details, and estimates for other countries, are given inside.

What's inside:
Many family trees. Articles and documents on History, Language, Nobility, van O. and King Henry VIII, van O. castles and manors, Family Trees to Charlemagne (Karel de Grote), Coat of Arms, Engravings, Photos and much more.

Updates:
Please come back often. We still have hundreds of names and details to add. We update this site almost on a daily basis.