Introduction

In twentieth century Holland the name Ketelaars occurs chiefly under two forms: KETELAAR and KETELAARS. In Belgium there is a greater variety: KETELEER, KETELAAR and DE KETELAERE being the most common forms.

The name Ketelaars was a relatively rare name even in the Netherlands. While going through the telephone book (1), it became apparent, that there were two kinds of Ketelaars in the 20th century: KETELAAR and KETELAARS. Some of these have ancestors who have had their names written in various ways. According to the distribution diagrams based on the 1972/73 Nederlands telephone book , most KETELAARS families are concentrated in the south, in the province of Noord Brabant. This makes sense when you consider that in that province many other names have the “S” ending, which elsewhere goes without.
note 1: A complete set of 1972/73 telephone books was available in the Robarts Library in Toronto, Ontario. For a current population distribution, check the website: http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nfb/

By tracing all KETELAARS families living in the early 20th century back through their ancestors using the GENLIAS website (2) one quickly comes to the conclusion that they all descended from a set of about 30 families born in the mid 18th century. Most of these families can be traced back to two major ancestral groups: “Ketelaers alias Den Steenbecker” from Oisterwijk (3) and “Ketelaers alias Cuijten” from Nuenen (4). Our ancestors belong to the second group.

All living descendants of this group belong to one of 13 grandchildren of Peer Ketelaars (1687 - 1758) so I found it convenient to classify them under the headings respectively of these 13 ancestors (A to M).

John Ketelaars (john@ketelaars.org), London ON

note 2: The website https://wiewaswie.nl contains at present virtually all Dutch marriages recorded in the Burgerlijke Stand. Its aim is to eventually post all data from the Burgerlijke Stand, that is, all births, marriage and death records dated starting from 1811.
note 3: See the article: Ketelaers alias Den Steenbecker by W. de Bakker, published in the journal The Barbantse Leeuw, Jul-Aug 1981.
note 4: See the book, De Familie Kuijten by Dhr. G.J.A. Schampers, Uden, 1997