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The Netherlands
In the province of Limburg south of Roermond in the town of Montfort there are the ruins of a castle, built by Hendrik van Gelre starting in 1251. In 1285 a “beak tower”, unique in Benelux countries was built and called de Grauwert (the grey one).
Nowadays the whole castle is known under that name.
My story begins in 1191 when (according to: genealogie page for the prins family)
Herman Oude Ridder genoemt (called) Grauwert was born.
Utrecht had been founded in the 4th century by the Romans (“Traiectum”) = ford
on the Rhine river.
Near Utrecht there was a small castle on an island in the “Leidsche Rhine” called Grauwaert.
Leidsche Rijn is nowadays a suburb of Utrecht. During archeological diggings remnants of a castle have been found.
It is documented, that Herman sold some land to: The German House, Otto, Bishop of Utrecht.
Herman had two sons, which are documented:
Dirk, Oude Ridder
Herman Oude Ridder II
According to Sigrid de Grave's paper the family can then be followed until the middle of the 17th century, when the last Grauwert also called Herman died after 1650.
During that time at least five Grauwert’s were mayor’s of Utrecht
( Wikipedia: Lijst van burgemeesters van Utrecht 1402-1618”)
and many others had important functions (see my German text) like prior of a cloister, speakers of guild’s etc.
Beautiful are “Buchel’s monumenta” a beautiful handwritten and colored in paper by an old Monk. The coat of arms of Grauwert (upper part yellow, lower part red with two flowers) can be identified several times and information on Grauwerts can be found on pages 27,28,49,57,64,239,245,284,285,291,293,300,301 = see my German text.
However, there is no full proof, that my family goes back to the Grauwert’s from Utrecht.
Reason is, that Dutch family names are often based on towns (“van Haarlem”) areas
(‘van Rijn” = from the Rhine river = Rembrandt), Profession "de Bakker"= the baker or where they live (“van der Molen = from the mill).
This means, that the different groups of Grawert/Grauwert’s I found in the Netherlands are not necessarily related, but have in common, that they lived in or near a castle.
There are some Grawert’s/Grauwert’s that lived in Portugaal and Charlois, nowadays suburbs of Rotterdam. This is in so far interesting, as the so called Kremper Marsh near the Elbe river in Germany was settled and developed by Dutch as from the 13th century and these are supposed to have come from Krimperward, an area dyked and developed near Rotterdam. Only the Dutch had this dyking technology at that time.
Names and references : see German text.
In the province of Geldern we find other Grauwerts (or similar).
Again names and references ; see German text
Interesting is, that Geldern nowadays borders with Germany and that there are many castles in that area. There is a tourist route called “the eight castles tour”.
This supports my theory regarding the family name.
Here we find proof that town clerks were rather careless with documentation.
Children from the same family were documented as:
Graauwert, Graeuwert, Grauwert, Graewert and Grawert !!
Names and references: see German text
In what is nowadays the province of Overijssel we find another group of Grawert’s.
If we analyse the four groups of Grawert’s / Grauwert’s I found in the Netherlands one can draw the following conclusions:
There is no information, that the group of Grauwert’s from Gelderland ever left the Netherlands. However Gelderland borders on to Germany and there were no such countries in the middle ages anyway.
The group from Rotterdam could well be related to the Grauvert’s we find in the Kremper Marsh and there is ample documentation, that the people living in this area trace themselves back to the Netherlands (see: Johannes Gravert: “Die Bauernhöfe der Kremper- und Kollmarer Marsch”). A well known book in that region.
However they were farmers and there are no documents, that they have moved away further east lateron.
The Grawert’s from Overijssel seem to be related to Grawert’s we find in the German towns of Emden and Norden. They could be related to the family around Hans-Lamsting Grawert and, according to Gragert are likely be related to the Grauwert’s from Utrecht.
The Grauwert’s from Utrecht are the most likely candidates to be those, that moved to Lübeck, the Altmark, Berlin, New Brandenburg and East Prussia.
They came from a similar social background as the Grawert’s from Emden and Lübeck (which was extremely important at that time) and there are statements from the “von Grawert” family, that the Grawert’s came from Lübeck but trace themselves back to Utrecht before that.
There are no Grauwert’s left in the Netherlands. According to Nederlandse Familienambank the last time a Grauwert was documented was in 1947.
Historical background: (source : see German text)
In the northern Netherlands there were rumours about “ the end of the world” due to a large flood. Preachers from the German town of Muenster recommended Westphalia as “Noah’s Arc” and in 1534 many Dutch left across the Zuidersee. Some of them went to Schleswig Holstein (Hamburg and Dithmarschen).
This was not a new phenomenon.
Already in the 15th century many Dutch went to the rich lands of polders and mud flats and along the rivers of Elbe and Weser. By doing so, they followed the old trails of their forefathers who did so in the 12th and 13th century.