Malson family . . . (General)

by Dabm, Sunday, October 26, 2008, 21:32 (5882 days ago) @ kerriaylesbury

Hi Kerri,

I can't remember the Maltese link but I have been doing some more digging and have come accross a Malsen (Van Malsen) in the twelth century. My thought, as Malson is not a typical English name, is that it's an English development of a foreign name. IE English will coloquilise (?) 'sen' to 'son' as it would be their assumption of spelling upon hearing the name. I'll include below some info that I've been sent on the earliest mention of the 'Malsen' version :

Message from someone I contacted ref. Malsen (Van Malsen): I have one Hermann van Malsen (von would be German, whereas van is Dutch/Flemish). Cuijck is the name of a village, so it's possible Malsen was too. Malsen's father's surname of Kempengau suggests a German origin, even though he was born in the Netherlands; German nouns ending in 'gau tend to refer to a region or district. Specifically he was 'Graf im Kempengau' or 'Count in the Kempen region.' Kempen is a town in NW Westphalia in Germany, but there is also a Dutch-Belgian region, usually referred to as Campine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campine
I tend towards the Belgian-Dutch view, but it's possible I took the info from a German website.
There is a Dutch castle called Huis van Malsen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasdriel
But when you click on it, it takes you to the region of Maasdriel in Drenthe in the eastern Netherlands, which would place it right next to Germany.
This following link has some info in Dutch:
http://www.benvanrijswijk.com/genealogie/malsen2.htm
I don't really read Dutch, but the gist seems to be that the van Malsen surname was still around in the 1230s.

In the meantime, thanks for your info. and although I can find Malsons back for several hundred years I haven't managed yet to link them ! I'm sure you are a lot further on that me !

I'll take a look at your suggestions and will let you know if I manage to find anything that may be of interest to you.

Regards

Dan