Brief Life History of Neeltje
When Neeltje Freer was born on 11 August 1744, in New York Colony, British Colonial America, her father, Philippus Freer, was 38 and her mother, Catharina Scherp, was 31. She married Nicholas Bresie in 1765, in Rhinebeck, Dutchess, New York, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 4 daughters.
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Family Time Line
Sources (7)
- Neeltie Freer, "New York, Births and Christenings, 1640-1962"
- Neltje Frey in entry for Evje Brisig, "New York, Births and Christenings, 1640-1962"
- Cornelia in entry for Englige Pressie, "New York, Births and Christenings, 1640-1962"
Spouse and Children
Parents and Siblings
Siblings (11)
+6 More Children
Name Meaning
English: sometimes from Middle English frere, frier ‘brother, friend, comrade’ (Old French frere). During the 13th century, however, the word increasingly denoted ‘member of one of the mendicant religious orders’, the usual modern sense of the word friar. The first friars arrived in England in 1224. As with Abbot , Monk , Nunn , and Prior , late medieval use of Frere as a nickname was probably uncomplimentary, for by the mid 14th century the once popular friars had become a byword in satirical literature for self-indulgent, smooth-talking hypocrisy. Friars were not allowed to marry, but some of them probably fathered children. After the Reformation former friars were free to marry, and one such is said to have been the progenitor of the Friers of Melrose parish, Roxburgh, an instance, if true, of post-medieval surname creation. The name may also be occupational, for someone who lived or worked at a friary (Middle English frere ‘house of friars’).
Americanized form of French Frère (see Frere ).
German: cognate of Friedrich .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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