First read the information below or go direct to the (almost) complete

Intro

Hi!! Welcome to the Freie family. As you might have understood from my starting-page my name is Joop Freie. I'm married, have 2 children and 5 grand-children. We live in a village in the east of Holland; about 20 miles from the German border. I suppose that you are interested in the Freie-family. So am I. Let's start it!!!! After my parents died (in 1988 and 1989) I started searching for my family-roots. I knew that my grand-father was a born Dutchman, but that his father was a born German. First I started to make the Dutch-tree as complete as I could find. Then after a year and writings to the German Embassy in Holland (however, they could not help me) I discovered that my Great-grand-father was born in 1833 in a very small village in Germany, called Stirpe. In those days it belongs to the Kingdom of Hannover. Stirpe was a double village with the small village of Oelingen. During a visit (many years ago) to Orlando (Florida) I found in a telephonebook a family with my name: FREIE. That made me curious. We contacted; it seemed that their ancestors came from Germany and that many people with the name of Freie, Freye, Freier lived in the USA and Canada. Another member of the 'Freie-clan' (from Iowa) wrote me that their ancestors came from the area of Schale in the district of Westphalia in Germany.
From that time I tried to find a connection from my tree to the Americans. And I have found several. The most early ancestor was Adam Freye, born around 1695 in the region of Ostercappeln in the then principality of Osnabrück. In the principality, the bishop also had secular power over an area.
From 1813 the area belongs to the kingdom of Hanover and from 1946 the total area falls within the state of Lower Saxony. See more on 'Region of Origin' The name Freie comes in many variations: Freie, Freië (only in the Netherlands), Freier, Freije, Frije, Freye and in America many Fry, Frye, Freye and Friar. On this site I placed a parent of the oldest (so far known) ancestor of the Freie family.
A pedigree starts with the oldest ancestor. From the oldest ancestor, the pedigree then follows all children (male and female) back to the present. However, the pedigree that I have placed here is not completely complete. I have not followed the entire female line. But in general there is a line from most descendants to the oldest ancestor. You can find a (almost) Database Freie Family (in English) or a complete database-pedigree (in Dutch) or a Graphic Pedigree of all persons mentioned in the familytree of the Freie-family. With familynames as: Freie, Freye, Frey, Friar. >>>> And they are all related. <<<<<<

Region of origin

The basis of the Freie / Freije / Freye family is located in an area about 15/20 miles northeast of Osnabruck in Germany. There is a slightly larger village called: Ostercappeln. This place is surrounded by many small rural villages and hamlets, including the stamping places of many Freies: Stirpe, Oelingen, Herringhausen. It was originally a 100% agricultural and animal husbandry area. Nowadays that is less, but the farm is still being run. And there in a nice Lutheran church (hidden in the woods and agricultural area) I found, in the archieves, most of my ancestors: my great-grandfather and his family, my great-great-grandfather and his family. And so on back to about 1700. And that is probably the earliest year I can find, because the church and the archieves burned down in 1740.
I also found several acts in the archive of the Roman-Catholic St. Lambertus church in Ostercappeln. Although the family were Evangelical-Lutherans many of them were baptisted and married in the church in Ostercappeln. That was because of the financial contribution that had to be paid to the church. And in that time the Roman-Catholic church was still influencial. After 1700-1725 the Lutherans could be baptised and married in their own church.
I have a lot of information from the church archives of the church in Arenshorst (pict) and the church in Ostercappeln. I have made links to THOUSANDS of CERTIFICATES and NAME-LISTS from the Arenshorst Church-archieves.
You can find there not only members of the Freie family, but of all families who lived in that region. Herringhausen, Stirpe, Oelingen and the other villages fell under the Evangelical Lutheran congregation of Arenshorst. There was quite a bit of turmoil (wars) and diseases (potato plague) in Europe in the first half of the 19th century and this may have been one of the reasons that this Freie family has left Germany to seek a better and safer future for themselves and their children in the Netherlands.
In the same period, many went abroad. Even across the ocean to America. Many of those Americans eventually settled as farmers in the states of Ohio, Iowa and Nebraska. The red-framed part (fig) is the Ostercappeln branch with the red line to the Dutch branch, which has spread from the province of Groningen to the Netherlands and the blue line, which emigrates to America. The blue frame and blue line is the branch from Schale, many of which have left for America.
I don't know if there is a link between the Ostercappeln branch and the Schale branch. But these 2 areas are not that far apart, so I hope to find a link someday. Both branches often have the same first names, so that gives some hope. From the red branch, 2 lines actually go to the Netherlands. One line first settles in Oude Pekela and generally has the surname Freie or Freië. The other line settles in Harkstede and has the surname Freije. The name Freie is written in the Netherlands WITH and WITHOUT the diaeresis on the last 'e'. We were 4 brothers in our family: the 2 oldest boys officially have NO diaeresis and are therefore called Freie, while the 2 youngest brothers officially DO have a diaeresis and are therefore called Freië. This diaeresis was introduced for the first time in the Netherlands. Although my official name is Freië (with diaeresis), I often use the name on the internet without (laziness - and sometimes easier). I don't care so much about those 2 dots.
The family that settles in Oude Pekela, Netherlands the most sons become sailors. Then, at least, you had a better future than to get started as a farm worker in Groningen.
The young men (including my great-grandfather) who went to sea (between 1850 and 1900), most of them eventually became captains. And they mainly sail on 2 or 3-masted sailing ships (pic). Initially, those journeys went across the Baltic Sea to Russia (St. Petersburg), Estonia and Poland. Later they were traveling to the "West": Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname and to the west coast of Africa.

Hollandganger and Heuermann (Hireman)

In the former Dutch German states that consisted of many small Principles, Counties and Dioceses, there was a lot of poverty among the farming population. Many young farmer's sons therefore moved to the Netherlands in the spring and autumn to work as an agricultural worker. They were the Hollandganger. They often walked in large groups through the German peat and heathlands. And some of them sometimes stayed behind in the new country for love. Get married and started a new family there. The first Hollandganger already came to the Netherlands in the early 1600s. It was the born-again sons who had the fate that they could not become a direct heir or marry an heiress. It was customary for only the eldest son to inherit the parental company, which prevented a division into smaller companies. The other heirs then had to settle for a lump sum payment, which the eldest brother had to pay them directly or after a few years. However, they were often assigned a provisional stay in one of the farm buildings, for example the bakehouse or cooking hut, a part of the stable or one of the barns. These were called in Germany: kotten. They could live there during the seasonal work and at least they had a roof over their heads. From the money they earned, they could later lease a piece of land within the grounds of the farm. These workers for a large part, therefore, second and subsequent sons were the so-called "Heuerleute" (Hiremen) or "Heuermanner". On the piece of land they built a simple hut as soon as possible, which could later be expanded further. But from the very beginning, they stayed as much as possible in the vicinity of the farm to which they belonged. It sometimes happened that the mercenary lived in one of the rooms of a larger farmhouse, and sometimes he was allowed to move in temporarily with his family in the so-called "Leibzuchter". The grandparents or parents who were to be maintained by the farmer usually lived in that little house, who enjoyed their way of life and were therefore allowed to eat from the farmhouse kitchen. The mercenaries, barring an exception, have not brought it to their own land ownership. They had drawn a bad fate, their life was not easy.