Examples of Maternal Surname Inheritance in my Grafschaft Bentheim Ancestry

Like many other Dutch American residents of West Michigan, I have a couple of immigrant ancestors from Grafschaft Bentheim, a small, culturally unique region of West Germany on the border with the Netherlands. The people of Grafschaft Bentheim are not Dutch, nor are they German. If you ask them about their identity, they will tell you in their language, Plattdeutsch (Low German): "Wy bin’t Groofshappers!, or, we are Grafschafters! 

One aspect of their unique culture that has come up in a bit in my research is the maternal inheritance of surnames, which wasn't universal, but common enough for me to notice it happening quite a bit. These were often farm names, as at that time, farm ownership was more important than the family name. 

According to Bertram Sluys: "A child taking the last name of his mother was actually a fairly common practice in the Netherlands before 1811.  Sometimes the family didn't want a specific name to disappear; in some areas the family inherited the mother's property and the last name went with the property.  Sometimes no reason is apparent.  Check to see if other families in the Hanover area have the same thing happening in the early 1800's.  I know it was happening for property reasons in Grafschaft Bentheim on the border of the Netherlands, considered to belong to Hanover at that time. I have one ancestor from this time period who went by 6 last names: his father's last name and the names coming with his wife's 2 properties, all in Dutch and in German. His daughter inherited the property in Grafschaft Bentheim, so she and her husband also took the name of the property as their last name." 

For research purposes, I have compiled a list of examples of this that I have found in my Bentheim ancestry: 

• 3rd great grandmother, Swenne Hulshuis, took the surname of Hulshuis from her mother, her father was surnamed Vos 
• 4th great grandfather, Gerrit Jan Vos, took the surname of Vos from his mother, his father was surnamed Keuter
• 4th great grandfather, Jan Hendrik Grote, took the surname of Grote from his mother, his father was surnamed Jurjens
• 5th great grandfather, Berend Jurjens, took the surname of Jurjens from his mother, his father was surnamed Blekker
• 6th great grandmother, Fenne Jurjens, took the surname of Jurjens from her mother, her father was surnamed Haamberg
• 6th great grandmother, Swenne Smit, took the surname of Smit from her mother, her father was surnamed Bekhuis
• 6th great grandmother, Fenne Tijiink, took the surname of Tijink from her mother, her father was surnamed Gruskamp 
• 6th great grandfather, Berend Vos, took the surname of Vos from his mother, his father was surnamed Koondering
• 6th great grandfather, Evert de Weerd, took the surname of de Weerd his mother, his father was surnamed Schüürman