On the picture you see the farmstead Klein Kappers. It is
located along the Kappers Road in Heurne,
an area within the municipality of Aalten in the
east of the Netherlands. It was usual in that region, called Achterhoek, that
people adopted as a family name the name of the farmstead where they lived.
So you can see that surnames change over time when people moved from one farmstead
to another. The family name Kappers has several origins. At the moment this
site gives most information on the Kappers families that originate from Heurne
(Aalten, The Netherlands), descendants of Jan Kempink
(Little or Klein Kappers) and Hendrick Lensink
(Great or Groot Kappers)
The farmstead Kappers has been mentioned for the first
time in 1534 being the property of Henrick Kappers and Mette. In 1544 there
is a text that speaks about "des Kappers Bussche geheten die Bemmert
... und Henrick Kappers sunst lange in gebrueck gahat hefft" (the property
of Kappers, called Bemmert ... and Henrick Kappers has been using it for a long
time already). On this property, later called "Bemmer and Bos", has
been constructed a farm (probably about the year 1730 because of the change
of names in the book of baptisms), in 1748 called "new Kappers" and
always indicated in and after 1763 as "Klein Kappers" (Small Kappers).
Klein Kappers is located on a short distance from the older Kappers
that from that time on has been often indicated as "Groot Kappers"
(Great Kappers). The farm on Bemmer and Bosch probably has been built
by those Jan Kappers and Jan Kempink that have been married respectively with
Enneken Kempink and Geertje at Kortbeek. So Jan Kempink and Jan Kappers are
brothers in law. Jan Kappers is coming from Groot Kappers. Jan
Kempink alias Jan Klein Kappers is the father of the family Klein Kappers.
The geneagram of the Klein Kappers family is given
on a separate page.