Namens John van Essen nog een keer:
I've wondered why the van Ussen name didn't stick. Even the death record
for the guy who did the name change was in the Ceelen name. But might it
be because they *had* to use their birth name for the death record?
Machiel apparently had a younger sibling was that was registered with
the Ceelen name, so even in that family only one person was van Ussen.
One of Machiel's sons died without children, and the only other son left
for America, so that surname line no longer exists in the Netherlands.
In any event, I'd sure like to get a copy of the document that made the
change official. Do you know where "Gemeentearchief OSS nummer 1400"
would be kept? More info here:
tc.umn.edu/~vanes002/gen/ossnamen.html (opent in een nieuw tabblad)
John