My grandfather Johan Roskamp - who died two years ago in Maastricht, Holland - was very interested in the history of the Roskamp family and on several ocasions asked me to find out more about his grandparents and other forefathers. Whenever I had some time I tried to dig a little bit in some archives, focussing however on the direct mail line because I did not have much time. I found out that one of my direct forefathers - that is of our line of the Roskamp family - originally came from the Northwestern part of Germany and was a Lutherian who in the 18th century moved to Amsterdam to work. Later generations moved to the southern catholic Nijmegen and later to Maastricht, in the most southern part of Holland. Although my grandfather was born in Essen, Germany (his father was born in Nijmegen - there was a lot of work in the German Ruhrgebied just east of Nijmegen), my father and I were born in Maastricht. Although I tried to find out more about our branch of the Roskamp family, my search stopped with the oldest forefather which I could trace down. The municipal register in Amsterdam indicates that he came from a place called Sandhatten and was Lutherian. This place probably is the old Sandhatten near Oldenburg although I have not been able to trace him down in the local German parish archives. However, archives of Oldenburg and neighbouring towns contain many entries of people called Roskamp so the name seems to be quite common in the northwestern part of Germany. The information given in the posted messages by other people seem to confirm this. I have more exact information about our branch of the Roskamp family, if anyone is interested please contact me.

Hans Roskamp