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THE BRATT FAMILY OF
NORWAY AND NEW NETHERLAND Albert and Arent Andriessen and their families were early settlers in the Albany, New York area
when the colony still belonged to the Netherlands. Like many of their neighbors, they were not Dutch. They
were originally from Fredrikstad, Norway. Over the years, a large number of spelling changes have occurred. Almost all Bradt's and a large percentage of Bratt’s
and Brott’s are descended from the two Bratt brothers. Many Vanderzee’s and a few Brodt’s,
Broat’s, Brad’s, Bradd’s, Van Brott’s, and Van Bradt’s are also direct descendents. Some of the other spellings are listed in
"Bradt Family Name Listing" in the menu at the top. The Vanderzee line is descended from Albert’s son, Storm, who was born on the sea
crossing to America. "Van der zee" means "from the sea" in Dutch. Albert
Andriessen de Noorman came to Rensselaerswyck (Albany) in 1637. Arent came at the same time or shortly
after. Albert and his family operated two sawmills (under one roof?) on the Normanskill (Norman’s
Creek), so named because the Dutch referred to Norwegians as Normans. Arent was a farmer and fur trader
and his family were some of the original settlers in Schenectady. We can only guess
how the Bratt surname originated. Hereditary family names were not used by the Dutch or the Norwegians. When
England took over New Netherland and it became New York, that soon began to change. To the best of our knowledge, Albert never used the spelling
"Bradt"; he signed his name Brat or Bratt. Bradt become more common because
the Dutch customarily insert a silent "d." "Brott" originated later as some branches
of the family moved West. In those days it was common for Norwegians to use the name of their ancestral farm as their last
name. "Bratt" can mean "steep" in Norwegian and it's found in place names all over Norway (and Sweden,
Iceland, and in Eric the Red's farm in Greenland). Notably, it's common in the names of farms around
Fredrikstad. Most of today's Norwegian Bratt's probably took their names from farms. Another possibility is the old Bratt family that originated
in Bergen. This family originated in the middle ages, but no one has ever discovered any documents
that tie us in. It could be more than a coincidence that Fredrikstad is located on the Glomma River which
has it's headwaters in Oppland. Oppland is the home county of one branch of these Bratts. Perhaps
DNA testing will indicate a relationship. Over 95% of the Bradt cousins descend through female lines. It's no exaggeration to say that
we would not have a Bradt Family Society today without them.
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A LITTLE BACKGROUND:
THE BRADT FAMILY SOCIETY was formed when sixteen Bradt family members (and spouses)
met at the Desmond Hotel in Colonie, New York, and in three hours formalized the formation of the Society from a draft Constitution
proposed by Kenneth Bradt.
Ken Bradt has been one of the primary leaders of the Bradt Family association for
many years, and was the co-editor,with his wife,Thelma, of the BRADT FAMILY NEWS. The NEWS contains articles and genealogical
data and pictures concerning the history and activities of the Bradt family.
Four major family reunions have been held at the Desmond over the past fifteen
years, and a trip to Holland and Norway took sixty-six Bradt family members to the hometown of the brothers, Albert and Arent Bradt.
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If you are looking for the Bradt genealogy, Descendants of Albert and Arent Andriessen Bradt
is in the Library of Congress and in several of the other major libraries around the country. Our official genealogist
is Laurie Grimes, whose e-mail address is listed farther down this page.
Click here for a partial list of libraries in the U.S. and Canada that have "Descendants of Albert and Arent Andriessen Bradt."
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A LITTLE MORE BACKGROUND
From Cythia Biasca's preface to Descendants of Albert and Arent Andriessen Bradt:
The Origin
This is the proverbial book ( Descendants of Albert and Arent Andriessen Bradt) that its author never expected to
write. Until fifteen years ago I knew nothing of my family background, not even that the Brott spelling of my maiden name
had once been Bradt. In the fall of 1976 my sisters and I decided to research our father’s background. We knew the name
of our paternal great-grandfather, but not the name of his father. (A sad example of waiting too late to start our
research, for there was no one still alive who could supply the information.) We tried – and have tried over the past
13 years – every avenue we knew to learn that great-great-grandfathers’s identity. We do not to this day know
who X Bradt, as we refer to him, was.
In our leave-no-stones-unturned search for X Bradt, we scanned untold numbers of Bradt records. I was able to devote a
great deal of time to this work throughout the entire year. For a week almost every summer, my sisters and I met in different
counties of New York State, and together we attacked courthouse and cemetery and historical society and local library records,
and the information we amassed on Bradt/Bratt/Brott/Brodt families became extensive.
Finally, two things became clear: we might never find X Bradt in our lifetimes (three of us had become grandmothers during
this period), and all that voluminous data we had been accumulating must be shared, not kept stashed away in my file cabinets
and computer. Following the fabulous Bradt Reunion in Albany in the summer of 1987, more and more data came to me from more
and more correspondents. It now seemed all the more urgent that I put into comprehensive book form all the material we had
collected and which I had initially set up in the form of family charts. And so work on The Bradt Book (Descendants of
Albert and Arent Andriessen Bradt) began.
Webmaster’s note: The Bradt cousins owe Cynthia a huge debt of gratitude. Without her efforts, most
of us would not know about our origins or how many of us there are.
After all of these years of research, the help and support of her sisters, and countless letters and e-mails containing
family history, Cynthia has still not identified X Bradt.
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BREAKING NEWS: MORE BRADTS DOCUMENTED The "Third Supplement to the Bradt Book, Including Vanderzee" is now available. It includes updates
and additions, including new lines. In addition, some previously unknown lines are now resolved.
It
is hard cover with 164 pages, with over 1000 individual Bradt, Brott, Bratt, etc. descendants. The cost is $18.25 plus
$4.25 postage, for a total of $22.50, if mailed in the US. Email or write Laurie Grimes (E-mail address on Homepage) for
costs to Canada. Make checks payable made to The Bradt Family Society.
* A few copies of the "Second
Supplement to the Bradt Book, Including Vanderzee" are still available. The cost has been reduced to
$25, with $5 postage in US.
Hardcover, 241 pages. More about this book below.
Make checks out to the Bradt
Family Society.
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SPECIAL NOTICE: The Second Supplement to the Bradt Book is now available! The
Second Supplement to the Bradt Book is now available! It's been 12 years since Cynthia Brott Biasca wrote
"Descendants of Albert and Arent Andriessen Bradt" and eight years since she updated it with the first Supplement.
Now her successor as the Bradt Family Society lineage expert, Laurie Grimes, has written the "Second Supplement
to the Bradt Book, including VanDerzee." It is available from the author (at cost) for $25.00
plus $5.00 shipping in the US. Send payment to: Laurie Grimes, 6690 Nicoll Dr., North Ridgeville, OH 44039. For Canadian Bradts,
write to Laurie at lmgrimes@juno.com for shipping to Canada. The book contains about 6000 names, is 8/12 by 11, hardcover and 241 pages in length. |
Please overlook the repetition in the section below.
It is caused by hidden characters in the passage.
--The Webmaster
TO
SUBSCRIBE TO THE BRADT FAMILY NEWS: Membership in the Bradt Family Society automatically includes a subscription
to "The Bradt Family News (BFN)," published twice a year. TO JOIN THE BRADT
FAMILY SOCIETY simply click on "BRADT FAMILY SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP FORM" at the top
of this page, print & complete the form, and send it with a check for $10 to our treasurer:
Bradt Family Society
c/o Anne Holzinger
3425 22nd Avenue S
Minneapolis MN 55407
This mailbox is the place to send anything
pertaining to membership in the Society. The treasurer will handle the rest. There is no need
to correspond with the editors of the BFN about subscription matters. (Membership dues are $10.00 per year.)
Since there will be
people/organizations who will want to receive the BFN without becoming members of the Society, the editors of the BFN will
have two mailing lists: a list of members which the Treasurer will send them and a supplemental list of all others, including
libraries and family and/or genealogical societies which will receive free copies. Send news and articles for publication in the Bradt Family News
to the editors: Richard and Barbara Bratt
3984 Stetson Circle Syracuse, NY 13215.
We urge those with lineage inquiries or contributions to contact our Genealogist, Laurie
M. Grimes (e-mail address below). For those with non-lineage historical questions, (for example, to learn
about the role of the Bradt Family in North American history) contact the Archivist, Daniel P. Bradt. Send
news and articles for publication in the Bradt Family News to the editors: Richard and Barbara Bratt
3984 Stetson Circle Syracuse, NY 13215.
We urge those with lineage inquiries or contributions
to contact our Genealogist, Laurie M. Grimes (e-mail address below). For those with non-lineage historical questions,
(for example, to learn about the role of the Bradt Family in North American history) contact the Archivist,
Daniel P. Bradt. Continue on down this page for all of our e-mail addresses: This mailbox is the place to send anything pertaining to membership in
the Society. The treasurer will handle the rest. There is no need to correspond with the editors
of the BFN about subscription matters. (Membership dues are $10.00 per year.)
Since there will be people/organizations who will want
to receive the BFN without becoming members of the Society, the editors of the BFN will have two mailing lists: a list of
members which the Treasurer will send them and a supplemental list of all others, including libraries and family and/or genealogical
societies which will receive free copies. Send news and articles for publication in the Bradt Family News to the editors: Richard and Barbara Bratt
3984 Stetson Circle Syracuse, NY 13215.
We urge those with lineage
inquiries or contributions to contact our Genealogist, Laurie M. Grimes (e-mail address below). For those with
non-lineage historical questions, (for example, to learn about the role of the Bradt Family in North American
history) contact the Archivist, Daniel P. Bradt. Send news and articles for publication
in the Bradt Family News to the editors: Richard
and Barbara Bratt
3984 Stetson Circle Syracuse,
NY 13215.
We urge those with lineage inquiries or contributions to contact our Genealogist,
Laurie M. Grimes (e-mail address below). For those with non-lineage historical questions, (for example, to
learn about the role of the Bradt Family in North American history) contact the Archivist, Daniel P. Bradt. Continue on
down this page for all of our e-mail addresses: |
TO CONTACT THE BRADT FAMILY SOCIETY OFFICERS:
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CHARTER MEMBER & ORGANIZER |
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GENEALOGIST / LINEAGE EXPERT: |
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NEWSLETTER (The Bradt Family News) EDITORS: |
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