The Winkel book by Dena Allen says, “The Winkels were called Voorhees in part of the fifteenth and the whole of the sixteenth century. ” The results from our genetic testing appear to prove this. As of 7-12-07, we have five exact genetic matches in the familytreedna.com database. Of these five matches, 4 have the name Voorhees. The spelling differs between Voorhees, Voorhies and Voorhes.
Excerpt:
“According to professor De Boer, who has aided us in research, the name of “Winkel” is of German origin and means “corner where business is transacted.” The name of Winkel goes back from father to son until 1685, when Albert Koerts and his wife Margjen Arends had eight children with Koert Alberts as the oldest son, who was my fourth great grandfather. Albert Koerts whose father must be Koert Alberts, is not recorded with the name Winkel, but his oldest son is recorded with it. The reason for this was that during his lifetime the law required the adding of a surname. The Winkels were called Voorhees in part of the fifteenth and the whole of the sixteenth century. The records in Assen show that transaction of land and leasing took place at this particular period. Later, the Winkels became schippers and lived on the rivers, and when a child was born it was recorded wherever they happened to be at the time, making it very difficult to find complete records of families. Sometimes to distinguish one Winkel from another, the name Schipper was added.”