Olanda

This is a very unusual surname. It is apparently recorded in England as Oland, Olland, Olin, Olanda, Olander and Ollander, all quite rare, as well as Allander and Allender, and has probably two possible national origins. It may be a derivative of the surnames Holland or Hollander. These were used to describe either a person of Dutch origin from the province of Holland in the Netherlands, or an English person and who came from a village called Holland of which there are at least ten surviving examples from Lincolnshire down to Surrey. The name whether English or Dutch means hollow or low lying land. Many Dutch engineers were employed in England for several centuries between the 15th to 18th, to drain the low lying and marshy regions of the country particularly the Fen country of Lincolnshire and Norfolk. How many there were is uncertain but judging by the number of "Dutch style" houses in those counties it was considerable. Since 1535 a register of births, deaths and marriages has supposedly been kept in every church Church of England church, but these are far from accurate. This was partly because many people were Roman Catholic or Non Conformist and refused to sign the registers, but few could read or write, children often died very young, and record keeping was of little general interest. We do know that as Olland and later Olander there have been church recordings since the begining of the Stuart period in 1603 as shown below. Early recording examples include Adam Olland or Oulland at Spalding in Lincolnshire on December 19th 1613, John Olander was a chistening witness at St Marks Stoke Newington, in the diocese of Greater London, on February 22nd 1664, and George Allender was christened at the church of St Sepulchre in the city of London, on April 15th 1750.