Barent Barentsen van Rotmer - Swaem Thysen

Barent Barentsz (who may not have used the name Van Rotmer even if his father did) is married on Geni to a woman named Sibillia. If you look at the revisions history of that woman's father you'll see that previously his middle and last names were Thysen Swaim. I suspect that thru poor merging these names have been ported into BB's name fields and you are simply the first person to notice.

FYI Thysen is the origin of amongst other surnames Tyson and literally translates as "Matthew's son".
Swaim is much less clear and is surround by lots of speculation, i think the most reasonable derivation that i can remember is that it is a misspelling of the naval rank (boat)swaiN. No one really knows when the surname Swaim was first adopted or why and a big problem in genealogy of New Amsterdam is noivice researchers working backwards in time and projecting data backwards that is not accurate.

Another big noivice trap and red flag is wives' last names, BB has two other wives on Geni both with Last Name of VanRotmer but Dutch women did not change their name at marriage (this practice was introduced in NY only after the English take over) so unless he married a cousin the names are wrong and cast doubt on any other data added by those users.

PS capitalisation varies dependant on context in Dutch so speaking of the family is Van Rotmer (with a capital) but as part of a full name it is Barent van Rotmer (no capital) in both cases there is always a space between the van and tge second component. In America both these rules have been lost over time but Dutch profiles should always follow them and also pre-1664 American profiles (there's a grey zone after 1664 but i've read that in some parts of NY state Dutch language/culture dominated well into the late 1700s).

Alex Moes, How does one "look at the revisions history" of an individual's name and other events? I'm assuming you're speaking of the Profiles on Geni, correct?

Marvin Loyd Welborn on a profile page the upper grey portion has the persons vital stats and immediate family members. Below this there are 7 tabs styled to recall the tabs in a filing cabinet. The 6th tab is labelled Revisions and records changes made to that profile (also sometimes changes made to close family).

Ah! And to think, ‘at my age’, on this 234th year, I’m still Learning something new every day.
I thank you, kind Sir.

Thanks!

I just came across this. I don't know how accurate this website is, but it does list sources.

Swaem History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
https://www.houseofnames.com/swaem-family-crest

Whether that site's claims are accurate or not they do not on the surface correlate to this situation. The New York Swaim family is indisputably Dutch not Scottish. There is not necessarily a logic explanation why they adopted the surname Swain when the requirement for surnames was enforced per English law, it's possible that they heard the name and liked the sound of it and 350 years later there's no way to know for certain.

I concur Alex Moes. This family did NOT start out as Swaim.

Lest ye forget, there is a Y DNA study. This family is VERY well documented and matches are DNA confirmed.
I have seen that Swaim was Surname Withheld Against Invading Monarchs. Other than this, I do not know the origin of the name. I am, however, a direct descendant and researched them MANY years ago. I watch them and TRY to advocate for them...

Private User, not this line. Those things are nice but not always correct. (They want your money.)

Yes, I've always been suspicious of those companies that sell family crests and coats-of-arms. I'm pretty sure not everyone had them. 🧐

My mother bought a crest in the 80s, it turned out to be quite accurate. Unfortunately it was quiet accurate for a completely separate Moes family that has no links to us at all :)