When Obele Ritskes Vries was born on 16 February 1865, in Garijp, Friesland, Netherlands, his father, Ritske Vries, was 29 and his mother, Willemke Ates Zijlstra, was 23. He married Emke Jakobs van der Ploeg on 9 May 1895, in Achtkarspelen, Friesland, Netherlands. They were the parents of at least 1 daughter. He died on 12 November 1941, in Kollum, Friesland, Netherlands, at the age of 76.
South German: topographic name for someone who lived in a sandy place, from Middle High German griez ‘sand, pebble’.
Perhaps also a shortened form of German Griese .
German: habitational name from any of the places called Gries.
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