Olander

This is a very unusual and rare surname. It is apparently recorded in England as the rare Oland, Olland, Olin, Olanda, Olander and Ollander, as well as Allander and Allender, and has probably two potential national origins. It may be a derivative of Holland or Hollander, words used to describe either a person of Dutch origin from the province of Holland in the Netherlands, or one who was English and who came from a village of which there are at least ten surviving examples built in a low lying area called a holland or hollow land. It is quite impossible to say with exactitude how many Dutch engineers were employed in England on the various schemes of the 15th to 18th centuries to drain the low lying areas particularly the Fen country of Lincolnshire and Norfolk, but it was certainly hundreds and may have been thousands jusding by the number of "Dutch style" houses in those counties. Since 1535 a register of births, deaths and marriages has supposedly been kept in every church Church of England church, but these were far from accurate. This was possibly because many people were Roman Catholic or Non Conformist, but more likely because few people 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. There is another unproven possibility that the name could be a derivative of Allendale, villages in Northumberland and County Durham. Early recordings include Adam Olland or Oulland at Spalding in Linconshire 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.