Could it be persistent island genes I may still posess? Or does an illustrious ancestor of mine haunt me towards an island?
My family name is Schokker. A Schokker is a fishing boat, a kind of wrinkled pea or a resident of the former island in the North East polder called Schokland.
Before the Afsluitdijk between North Holland and Friesland was finished in 1932, the IJsselmeer was an innersea, called the Zuiderzee. Schokland was an island in the Zuiderzee.
Schokland was never as remote or isolated as St. Kilda, but the Zuiderzee was still tidal and could be very rough and treacherous. Schokland consists of peat, and the sea skipped off the land. The island was getting smaller and was threatened to dissappear completely.
The Schokkers were a seperate group of people. They had their own language, customes and clothing. They were mainly fishermen. In the 19th century fishing was no longer profitable and the people became extremely poor. The authorities tried to stimulate the people to leave the island. They broke down their houses or they gave the people a substantial amount of money to leave the island for good. In 1859 the island was finally cleared by order of the king.
In 1941 the dike around the polder was closed, and in 1942 the North East polder was fully reclaimed. Now Schokland is incorporated in the polder, but is still elevated and recognisable as an island. The island is just like St. Kilda an Unesco World heritage site because of its cultural value.
On Schokland the name "Schokker" didn't exist. We traced back our family line until 1710. This ancestor of mine wasn't born on Schokland. But before the Napoleonic era, people had no family name. A person was named after his father ("Jansons", in Dutch "Janszoon"), or to another feature. It might be that he was given the name because of his origin. But we are not certain; it might also be that he looked like a wrinkled pea.
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| Seawall and vicarage on Schokland |
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