well you know that I have said I have some sort of connection with the Dutch. I feel at home in the Netherlands. Is it possible that Machen is a form of some other Dutch name? Or maybe the Garcia were involved very strongly in Dutch occupation by Spain.
I found a few records of Machens in the Netherlands. Here is a marriage record from 1823: Bron Burgerlijke stand - Huwelijk (Bruid) Archieflocatie Rijksarchief Noord-Brabant Algemeen Toegangnr: 121.182 Inventarisnr: 9132 Gemeente: Woudrichem Soort akte: Huwelijksakte Nummer: 2 Datum: 17-04-1823 Man Naam: Roeloff Johannes Heijligers Geboortedatum: 17-04-1791 Plaats: Woudrichem Vrouw Naam: AgleeJosephina Maria Marguerite Machen Geboortedatum: 04-11-1798 Plaats: Brunen DEU Vader man Naam: Jan Heijligers Vader vrouw Naam: Jean Baptist Machen Moeder man Naam: Neeltje Timmermans Moeder vrouw Naam: Marie Marguerite Macaine I found 26 Machen records. All but a couple seem to be from the same family. "Plaats: Brunen DEU" tells me the bride was born in Germany as I found in other records. The interesting part is that they all seem to have french or maybe spanish names. Could be some french or belgian connections. More later... maybe I'll pm you this really isn't the place for this.
I have to say I'm very impressed. My sister's name is Maria Marguerite as well! Holy crap! You could post this in the Dutch Slow Chat one. WOW!!! Very cool Fries, very cool.
Fries, to what date can you trace your family tree to? I ask because about 10 years ago my grandmother went back to the Basque country and did this, and she created our family tree, it goes back to the 16th century. and has over 300 people on it. It is unbelievable, to see the 300 people and then to see mu own name at the bottom w/ like 75 cousins(2nd,3rd,4th, I would imagine.)
My grandfather traced his lineage back to William the Conqueror. So, ya know, I could be like King Ralph one day.
That would make you part Dutch. Congradulations. B2B, I'm back to about 1710 on my paternal side. I don't think the records exist any further back and if they do they are very hard to track because surnames weren't commonly used in Friesland before 1813. One branch of my family I have traced back to the Spanish seige of Leiden during the 80 Years War.