From 1795 - 1813 the Netherlands were ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, self-declared emperor of France. In 1811 he issued a decree demanding each person in the Netherlands to take a family name, this in accordance with the French law. Registration of the surname was the responsibility of the father of the family and as from then on the name would apply to the father as well as to his children. For good orders sake it should be noted that a widow, by the obvious absence of her late husband, was allowed to take a family name for her children.
It is known that sometimes a (married) son took another family name than his father and/or brothers e.g. because the spouse of the son already had a surname in 1811-1812. The son simply had this family name registered for him and his children and that was it. Furthermore it has happened that after some years a family name was changed to another family name e.g. a stepchild decided to take the surname of her stepfather (or, the other way around, took her original surname of 1811-1812). In the database you will find a few examples of both situations. Not all records of Friesland are available anymore. The records of the Waddeneilanden (Ameland, Schiermonnikoog, Vlieland and Terschelling), Het Bildt, Menaldumadeel and Leeuwarden are lost forever.

In 1811-1812 Ferwerderadeel had four "marieën" (townships) : Blija, Ferwerd, Hallum and Marrum.  The records of all four have been saved over the years. The certificates date from December 1811 till March 1812 numbering 1145. You will find a scan of all certificates at the pages mentioned below. Click on a name and the relevant certificate will be shown. For good orders sake it should be noted that the quality of some of the certificates is rather poor due to the fact that the ink of the original has faded over the years.

Source: "Registers der Familienaamen", municipal archive of Ferwerderadeel.
Scans: Klaas Leen.