Brockman - Additional Background Regarding Swedish, Dutch, Jewish, and German Brockmans

Additional Background Regarding Swedish, Dutch, Jewish, and German Brockmans

In the Netherlands the name tends to be spelled Broekman, Broeksma, or Broekstra and in Germany it tends to be spelled Brockmann, and that is the closest to the spelling that seems to have predominated in the UK (Brockman). Genetic testing to date has yielded multiple results tracing UK Brockmans as R1a and R1b decent to various ancient Germanic origins of arguably Frisian and Norwegian haplotypes.

There has also been some research on the Brockman and Brockmanns surname in Northern Germany and Northern Europe. Several of the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Brockmanns can be traced back to their German roots. In the kingdom of Denmark-Norway around the 16–17th centuries approximately two thirds of the soldiers had Germanic roots. Sweden also had a lot of Germans in their army. Most regiments were enlisted in Germany. In Denmark the name changed from Brockmann to Brochmann or Brochmand (see also the German name Brückner got Brøchner). That differs from the Jewish name Brochman. For example, Brockmans who immigrated to the USA and elsewhere with the name Israel or Isaak Brochmann/Brockmann often originally had the name Brochman.

In Holstein many Brockmann families immigrated from Lower Saxony or Westphalia and in later from Mecklenburg (The Mecklenburger Brockmanns probably also came from Lower Saxony or Westphalia). In Probstei (Holstein) it is noted that Brockmanns came around 12. century to Holstein. On the edge of Holstein (River Elbe) several Brockmann-families also appear to have come from Lower Saxony. There were no Brockman families in the middle of Holstein and Duchy Schleswig (besides one or two persons/families without long standing or harbour cities ) prior to 1780.

The English Brockmans may also have emigrated to England from the Lower Saxony area in ancient times. In addition, many Brockmanns in Scandinavia are thought to have come from the North of Germany (The old language of Norway, Sweden and Holstein were nearly the same – low Germans in their different forms). Low German is nearer to English than to high German.Low German Article