Genealogy of the Swaters family in Canada

General Information 

The Swaters name is a rare surname. A listing, dated 2014, estimated the following population density table:

But this table is only qualitatively correct since in 2014 there were exactly 7 people alive with the Swaters surname in Canada. 

Family folklore has that the name Swaters is a truncation of the Dutch phrase Zoon van de man bij het water which in English is Son of the man at the water. Apparently, the first person in the Netherlands to have the Swaters surname lived by the Zuiderzee (Ijselmeer) in the 15th century. Some of the other variants of the name Swaters include: Swaters van Schaumburg, Zwaters, Swaeters, Swater, Waters (not the English name), and Suaters.

Brief history of the paternal origins of the Swaters family in Canada

The information given here is based on genealogical research done by Dutch “cousins” of my father (Jan Antoon Swaters [1929 - 2015] - see below) in the late 1980s and early 1990s with subsequent updates by myself (Gordon Swaters) and other “distant” cousins in the Netherlands. I have a 41-page document that outlines the various branches (or takken in Dutch) of the Swaters family. This document suggests that there are three main paternal branches of the Swaters surname in the Netherlands: the Azewijn Tak, the Lochem Tak, and the Swaters van Schaumburg Tak. The Swaters family in Canada is descended from the Lochem Tak of the Swaters family in the Netherlands.  

Our paternal family tree is known back to at least 1680 and originates in Bienen, Germany near what is now the Dutch/German border with a man known as Derck Swaters. As the story goes, Derck moved to the Netherlands as a young man and began farming near Lochem, Netherlands in the province of Gelderland where he married Janna Raeben in 1705.

Around 1710 Derck and his family moved to the nearby town of Lichtenvoorde, Netherlands. Derck and Janna had a son in Lichtenvoorde named Winolt baptized on August 4, 1726 who eventually moved to “back” to Lochem. It is from Winolt that the Lochem and ultimately the Canadian branch of the Swaters family paternally originates (see the additional remarks below).

As time progressed, Winolt's family eventually specialized in the production of leather goods and, in particular, shoes. From the mid to late 1700's until the early 1990's there was a Swaters shoe shop in Lochem. The first officially recorded “schoenmaker” or shoemaker was Jan Wijnolds Swaters (1758-1817; he was Winolt’s son, see below). For most of that time the family actually made shoes but this aspect of the business eventually disappeared and they operated a retail store only thereafter. The last owner of the store was a second-cousin of my father also named Jan Swaters (he was the eldest son of a first cousin of my father). He died, I am told, of HIV/AIDS and had no children. I met Jan Swaters, the last owner of the shoe store, before he passed away. He was a very nice person. The upstairs of the shoe shop housed a small “museum” containing artifacts from and telling the story of the Swaters shoemaking business in Lochem. He told me that the manufacturing part of the Swaters shoe business, which was quite successful from the mid 1700s until the early 1900s, ended in the mid 1900s because they could no longer compete against shoes made in Italy.

There is more recent information about the early origins of our family. The records in Lochem say that Derck Swaters “came” from Bienen but they do not say explicitly that he was born there. More recent research based on Roman Catholic Church Books suggests that Derck's parents were Derick Swaters (born c. 1650 in Grieth, Germany) and Wendel Goldberghs (birth date unknown but the marriage seems to have occurred on May 23, 1673 in Grieth) and that Derck was actually born in Grieth circa 1680. It is interesting to note that Grieth and Bienen are just a few kilometers apart on opposite sides of the Rhine River. It also seems that Derick's father was Jacobus Swaters (born c. 1630 in Grieth, Germany). There is no information about Derick's mother. If this more recent information is correct, then our paternal family tree is known back to about 1630 in Grieth, Germany.

There is an interesting wrinkle concerning Winolt Swaters. A search of Church records in Lichtenvoorde, NL (that can be found on both the Mormon Church FamilySearch website as well as on the Netherlands OpenArchives website) says that Derck Swaters and Janna Raeben had an earlier son named Wijnold baptized on July 30, 1719. Early Swaters genealogies say that the "Lochem Branch" of the Swaters family is descended from Wijnold Swaters born in 1719. However, Wijnold and and Winolt seem very similar as Christian names and thus I infer from the record that the Wijnold born in 1719 died as a young child (but I cannot find an official record of his death) and, in fact, it is the Winolt baptized on August 4, 1726 that is the paternal ancestor of my branch of the Swaters family. Further research is needed to clarify this issue.

There is another interesting wrinkle concerning the spelling of our last name. Winolt Swaters and Janna Raeben had a son named Jan Wijnolds Swaters (1758 – 1817; the first person in the family that is recorded as having the profession of shoemaker). However, while the Mormon FamilySearch and Netherlands online archives (links given above) show that the marriage certiicate for Winolt Swaters lists his father as Derk Swaters, he actually seems to have been baptized as Winolt Watters 's (and Winolt's father's name is listed as Derk Watters 's in the baptismal record). Note the unusual spacing between the first and second “s” in the name Watters 's. As far as I can tell there is no confusion about the people. The available information seems to suggest that Derk or Winolt Watters 's changed or shortened the surname to Swaters. Many other “Swaters” genealogies that I have found seem to ignore this ambiguity and adopt the “Swaters” spelling throughout (as I do here). I simply want to state this point for the record. 

My father's name was also Jan Swaters (see below). There seems to be a tradition, stretching at least back to 1714, in the branch of the Swaters family of which I am a part, to name the first son Jan, which is Dutch for John. I followed this tradition by naming my son Sean, which is Irish for John.

My paternal grandfather, Hendrik Swaters or Opa Swaters as I knew him, did not participate directly in the family shoe making business (as was common at the time, his eldest brother wholly inherited the business, a practice known as primogeniture). After high school, during the late 1800s or very early 1900s, my Opa studied architecture for a brief period of time at the University of Amsterdam. He did not complete his studies and ultimately moved back to Lochem where he started a successful painting and, what we would now call, interior design business (Opa Swaters's profession is listed in the Lochem Civic Registry as Schilder, which is Dutch for Painter). He also taught painting and drawing on the side. Very few of his paintings and drawings survived World War Two but I am pleased that I have one painting and one drawing. One piece, depicting a scene in 1930s Lochem, and which is no longer within the family (it hangs in the foyer of a firm in Lochem), but for which I have a digital image, can be seen here.

I have been contacted by other “distant” cousins in the Netherlands and it seems that other members of the “Swaters” family were also artists and painters. If there is a “gene” that is responsible for this ability, it appears to have passed me by entirely (maybe it is a father’s pride but I believe that this gene has wonderfully surfaced in my daughter)! 

There was also a Swaters jewelry store in Lochem. The exact nature of the relationship of that family with my father's family is unclear. My father had no recollection of any family event which included them but he did recall his father referring to them as “distant cousins.”

Another aspect of Swaters genealogy which puzzles me is religious tradition. Our background is Protestant but many, and perhaps the majority, of the members of the Swaters family are, formally at least, Roman Catholic. Just why this split occurred my father did not recall. He remembered that he and his entire extended family attending the Reform Church in Lochem.

I have a theory as to why our branch is Protestant but it is completely unverified. The name of the wife of Derck Swaters was Janna Raeben (it is also interesting to note that the name of Derick's mother is Wendel Goldberghs). It is possible that Janna Raeben was Jewish and that our branch of the Swaters family became Protestant as a result of social pressure. Sad, if true, but not outside the realm of possibility.

However, more recent research found Janna Raeben's birth explicitly recorded in the Protestant Church Book in Lochem. It seems unlikely that this would be the case if she was Jewish. Anyway, the point being is that the Swaters family in Grieth, Germany was Roman Catholic and by the time it gets to Lochem it is Protestant. Something happened.

As an update, my speculation as to why our branch of the Swaters family tree became Protestant is almost certainly wrong. In 2018, I had my DNA analyzed by Ancestry DNA (more fully described below). The results indicate that I have no detectable Jewish DNA. The Ancestry DNA results also showed another family myth to be not true. As it happens, our family suntans very easily and we almost never sunburn ... we just get really brown. The myth that we were brought up with that attempted to explain this trait was that we have Spanish blood in us, which was acquired, so to speak, during the Eighty Years' War or the Dutch War of Independence (1566 - 1648) from Spain. Alas, the Ancestry DNA results show no detectable Spanish DNA.

Our Protestant tradition can be also contrasted with the history of the Swaters family in the United States which, I understand, is mostly Roman Catholic. My father believed and I believe, however, that the US Swaters family (located mostly in the Midwest), which started in the mid 1800's, is directly related to us somehow. There are just too many similarities in the pattern of paternal naming between us and them in the middle and late 1800s to be purely coincidental. It is possible to find personal web sites from individual Swaters in the US by searching the web. Here is one. Here is another website with public US Swaters Family History. One web site (maintained by the Mormon church) with genealogical information on the Swaters family name can be found here. 

As an update, I may have been able to figure out part of the story of how the US Swaters branch is related to the Canadian Swaters branch. It seems that the US Swaters family was originated by Johannes (subsequently Americanized as John) Swaters (1803 - 1853) and Antonetta de Heer (1810 - 1873) who emigrated to Clinton County, Illinois in 1848 together with their ten year old son named John Swaters (John is almost certainly an Americanized variant of Jan, Johannes or Joannes). The US-based information I have says that the son John Swaters was born in Ruesel-de Mierden, Netherlands, which is located in the province of Noord Brabant, on October 29, 1838. (I note, however, that the Netherlands OpenArchives - see above for the link - lists a Jan Swaaters - note the extra "a" - being born on October 29, 1838 in Didam, Netherlands to Johannes Swaaters and Antonetta de Heer.) John Swaters, the son, married Elizabeth Wehkamp (1851 - 1920; who was born in Germany) on April 18, 1871 and together they had 10 children. It is said that John and Elizabeth "made a great deal of money" by buying and selling farmland in Illinois and as a result they were able to "outright deed" three-quarter section farms to each of their sons. John Swaters, the son, passed away on December 30, 1926 in Montrose, Missouri. 

The US-based information I have does not list the birth places of John Swaters's parents Johannes Swaters and Antonetta de Heer. But my 41-page document (see page 5 here) on Swaters genealogy lists a Joannes Swaters being born in Didam, Netherlands, which is located about 42 km southwest of Lochem, Netherlands, on July 7, 1803. My document further says that Joannes's parents were Jacobus Swaters 1766 - 1827 born in Azewijn, Netherlands and Berendina Rasink born in 1772 in Didam, Netherlands. If Joannes Swaters is the same as Johannes Swaters (and I think this very likely given that the Netherlands OpenArchives also lists the marriage of a Joannes Swaaters (age 31) to a Anonetta Ter Heerde (age 26) on June 6, 1835 in Didam, Netherlands, with the "bruidgroom's" (bridegroom) parents being listed as Jacobus Swaaters and Berndin Raasink - the similarities in the names and the dates and ages must be more than purely coincidental), then the US Swaters family is descended from the Azewijn Tak of the Netherlands Swaters family. Both the Lochem and Azewijn branches or takken of the Swaters family originate in Bienen, Germany. I have not, as yet, been able to determine the common ancestor of the two branches (assuming one exists). But I presume the likelihood of a common ancestor is quite high since the Swaters name is not very common and Bienen, Germany was almost certainly a relatively small community during the period of time in question.  

My father also remembered that an Uncle Albertus Swaters (Born March 13, 1884; see the pdf file below with the full family tree) moving to South Africa in the early part of the 1900s. We were able to make contact with his grandson who is named Albert Swaters. Albert and his family live in Groblersdal, a town in the Sekhukhune District in the province of Limpopo in South Africa.

As mentioned above, I had my DNA analyzed by Ancestry DNA. The results indicate, with “high confidence,” that my “Ethnicity Estimate” is  49% from “Germanic Europe" with a specific geographical focus in the "North Central" and "Western Overijssel and Geldeland" regions in the Netherlands,  and  29% from "England & Northwestern Europe," 15% from “Sweden & Denmark,” 3% from "Norway," 2% from "Scotland," and about 1% from "Finland" and "Ireland," respectively. Apparently, I have essentially no DNA from any another other region or ethnicity (although it seems these estimates change as more DNA results are included in the database). The surprise for me in these Estimates is the 15% from "Sweden & Denmark" and the 3% from "Norway" and 2% from "Scotland," respectively. I had no idea about that.

From 1700 – 1850, my DNA markers are exclusively corelated with people in “Germanic Europe.” But from 1850 onward my DNA markers start to appear in people in North America and in particular in the American mid-west. This is exactly the time frame that the surname Swaters begins to appear in the US. In the Canadian context, my DNA markers start to appear in the Toronto and Simcoe regions in by 1875 and in the Hamilton area by 1900 (but there is no record of the Swaters surname in Canada at that time).

According to Ancestry DNA, with either “Extremely High” or “Very High” confidence, I have at least 96 “4th cousins or closer” in their database (meaning that the “likelihood of a single common ancestor” between me and these “cousins” is greater than 99%). With the exception of my son, two 1st cousins Cynthia and Frank van Daalen, and the two daughters (Lizabeth and Victoria) of Frank and Janet van Daalen, I know none of these people. (Frank and Cynthia's mother, Albertha van Daalen (nee Swaters), was the immediate older sister of my father.) Interestingly, none of the Ancestry DNA identified cousins have the surname Swaters! Most, but not all, of the more-distant-than 1st or 2nd cousins live in the Netherlands or in the United States. Ancestry DNA has been able to identify the common ancestor between me and 19 of these more distant cousins. The common ancestor varies anywhere from a 2nd to a 5th great-grandparent, with the majority being a 3rd or 4th great-grandparent (equally distributed on my father's and mother's side). The specific home countries of these more distant cousins for which a common ancestor has been identified are the United States, Australia, and New Zealand (none in the Netherlands). Of all the Ancestry DNA identified/listed relatives, only my son, 1st cousins Frank and Cynthia van Daalen, and Frank's two daughters Lizabeth and Victoria, live in Canada. (Frank and Janet also have a son David van Daalen but it seems he hasn't done the Ancestry DNA test yet.)

The Canadian branch of the Swaters family was started by Jan Antoon Swaters and Henriette Cassé (my parents). They immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands in 1952 and 1953, respectively. They initially settled in Brockville, ON (on the St. Lawrence River) where they had three children (see below). My parents chose Brockville as the place to begin to build their life together in Canada since my father already had a sister (Albertha van Daalen - see above) living there. Jan and Henriette Swaters became proud Canadian citizens on November 19, 1959. Although my sister Margaret (see below) and I were born before our parents became Canadian citizens my sister and I, even though at one time we were eligible, do not hold dual Canadian-Dutch citzenship. I'm still not really sure why no effort was made to make that happen. When my sister and I were very young our "first" language was Dutch. Early on, we were fluently bilingual in that we spoke Dutch in the home and English outside it. But that eventually gave way to our family speaking mostly (but not exclusively) English. (Decades after they had immigrated to Canada, when our parents visited the Netherlands and spoke Dutch the person they were speaking to would sometimes switch to English. Of course my parents wondered why. They were told that they spoke Dutch with a North American accent. They were not amused!) When Dutch is spoken to me I understand what is being said immediately without translation but I admit that I need to immerse myself in the language for a week or two before I can get my pronunciation to the point where I would consider myself a fluent speaker. Neither me nor my sister Margaret received any formal instruction in the Dutch language. However, our brother Clifford (see below) took undergraduate courses on the Dutch language from the University of Toronto and is fluent not only in speech but also in reading and writing the language (in addition Clifford is fluent in German and Swiss-German). In 1971, the family moved to Port Elgin, ON on the eastern shores of Lake Huron at the base of the Bruce Peninsula after our father accepted a position as a Chemical Technician at the Bruce Heavy Water Plant at the Bruce Nuclear Power Development. My father passed away on July 26, 2015 (my eulogy for my father is located here). Our mother lives in Port Elgin, ON.

The paternal genealogical tree of the Swaters family in Canada

Below I give the (paternal) direct line as I know it. I will not include all the siblings along the way (except for my brother and sister, her three children, and my two children). A link to diagrams of the  complete paternal family tree, and a combined  paternal and maternal family tree is given here. 

I am the first-born child of Jan and Henriette Swaters:

I also have a son: