Talk:Van Heeckeren

Coat of arms
The family coat of arms is a gold shield with a red cross - a hat on the helmet bears two ostrich plumes one yellow and one red. has two griffion shield holders with their wings up, and their tongue and tail are of a single tipped arrow.

the coat of arms you picture is that of the counts of Rechteren - the single red ostrich plume on the hat. if you also take a look at the two shield holders, you will find that the rechteren shield holders have their wings down.

and, of couse the shield is the samethe shield is the same

jakob van heker, in 1420 acquired the structures and grounds of "kasteel roderlo" (now castle ruurlo), located in the township ruurlo in the netherlands. in 1427 he was entitled therewith. my apologies for not knowing, but we have used the word "entitled" because we do not know the exact translate for the word "beleend", which has a very specific meaning in the the heraldry of the netherlands.

the family does not start then - prior to that time the family had owned a number of castles, fortresses, homes, together with the associated grounds and structures - during the many battles (both won and lost) - much of the family documentations was lost when structures were laid to ruin during these battles

the titles of count (rechteren) and baron (heeckeren) date to this time period - considered "old nobility" - napoleon bonaparte during his 20 years of continual battles placed is brother (lodewijk napoleon) as regent (governor?) in charge of the Netherlands (roughly as later defined by the truce of west phalen) - he tried to clarify/place his mark on the unwritten status for the nobility in those areas and in 1813 those ambitions were signed and sealed when he lost the regency over those countries with the outcome of waterloo - possibly a bit earlier with napoleon's first exile to elba

"old nobility" starts well before the napoleontic wars - there are really no specific thates, and that distinction of dates is vague, but anything post 1813 is considered "new nobility", and a significant part of those are from the pen of lodewijk napoleon.

jacob van heker mentioned earlier was by no means the first van Heeckeren - apparently there have been identified four different significant structures by the name heeckeren. there is one such heeckeren site near the town Emmerik where the castle moat was still identifiable (as of the late 1980's possibly still identifiable), (but that is not known as a fact) but those structures were long gone before ruurlo/roderlo was built - jakob van heker was not the first owner, and thea year is quite uncertain, but probably well before the 1400

the father of the aforementioned jakob van heker is uncertain - there were two brothers in the prior generation, each of whom could have been his father, but history has yet (to my knowledge) to reveal which of the brothers is the father of jakob van heker - for that reason jakob van heker is considered the root of the recorded family, and every acknowledged titled van Heeckeren today is a descendant of jakob van Heker - that formalization is triggered by the 1813 napoleonic/French documentation

i hope this has clarified more than it has confused

there are a number of websites which are instructive in attempting to understand the genealogy of heeckeren/rechteren/van voorst/van voorst tot voorst et al.

however my father told me on a number of occasions that his father told him that the documents from the "Heraldieke Bibliotheek" of the Netherlands of 1876 titled "Voerst, Hekeren genaamd Rechteren, Rechteren genaamd Voorst, Voorst genaamd rechteren", and 1881 "Het Geslacht van Heeckeren", as of those dates represented the most credible and complete record of the old nobility family van Heeckeren. there is a third book in the "heraldieke bibliotheek" which dates much earlier, and covers intersting reading, well before the first book mentioned, that gives much knowledge of van Heeckeren - there is an arch in a remnant of the ruins of an old stone wall, which shows an image of the van heeckeren shield - i believe it is dated 1200, or 1100. i have seen the book, and the picture, but cannot remember the dates - my apologies, but it was too long ago and the dates are no longer available from my memory - what i do recall is that one of the first two mentiond books the name heeckeren is mentioned in the early 1100's (1107?), and the possibility that the original name heeckeren rooted from the name "embrica"

also available is the "little red book" (het "roode boekje"), more properly "Nederlnd's Adelsboek" a revised edition is published every year, but there are quite a few copies of partial alphabetical grouping - my copy is the "H-K" - my copy dates from 1975, published by N.V. Uitgeverij W.P. van Stockum & Zoon - it sketchily continues where the above mentioned publications leave off, and is more detailed to the present - it is compiled by the "Hoge Raad van Adel" in the Hague (aka den Haag, and 's Gravenhage)

there is also a publication named "Wapenboek van de Nederlandsche Adel" dating from something like 1885 (my guess) - it has probably the most credible pictorial representation of coasts of arms of the Netherlands nobility as of the end of the 1800s - suggest you go see that book in the libraries of Amsterdam and/or Rotterdam - there are 2 other copies of this book in existence, but I have no knowledge of where they are kept - in it, i'm certain, you will find the answer to any of your concerns for accuracy of the van Heeckeren, and van Rechteren coats of arms

Jacob van Heeckeren tak Barlham