My husband's grandfather was supposedly born in Suriname while his father was stationed there with the service. The grandfather emigrated to the United States in the 1900s. Is anyone familiar with the name?

Dear Ann,

Kenswil is a well known name in Suriname.
Go to the next link and ask your questions.

http://www.leekong.demon.nl/

Good luck,

Jeff

This name is familar yeah, I am a Kenswil and I live in Holland.
My Father lived in surinam, he came to holland like in the 60's

His initials are H.R. kENSWIL

I hope to hear from you soon, because I am also looking for other family with this name, I got brothers with teh same name,

I'm a Kenswil from Suriname. My Grandfather was Rudolf Kenswil and was in the arny. His brother Erwin Kenswil (80+)is still living in Holland. He also had some half -sisters with the name Kuhn.
My Father August (65) has a brother Ronald (67) and a sister Fine (70) who are also living in Holland.
I'm also curious about the root of this name. Hope to get some reaction.
Vincent

dear ann,
i live in holland and a friend of mine is Brian Kenswil.He is technician(cars).Also see hereunder
Kenswil V kenswil@sr.net http://www.sr.net/users/kenswil
All these "Kenswil" live in surinam
Kenswil ,c a Verl gemenelandsw 32 b 47 93 13
Kenswil ,e Boedhiastr 71 46 49 66
Kenswil ,p h Tout lui fautwg 6 48 72 96
Kenswil ,r a Jacobstr 2 41 10 53
Kenswil ,s g Kasabaholowg 200 49 12 78
Kenswil ,v a Hugostr 11 46 58 45
Kenswil ,v r Anthonieln willem 41 43 40 39
Kenswil-kapel ,m g Amazonestr 684 43 4145

I'm from Holland.
According to the Slave-literature, slaves owned by Mr. Wil-kens received the name Kens-wil once they were deliberated. One of my ancestry's , W.J. Kenswil lived in Suriname in that periode. I wonder if he was a relative of your husbands grandfather. Willem Jacobes Kenswil was merried to Mrs. Emanuels. If anyone knows some more about their origine, please let me know.
The noumbre of deccendants of this couple must be very large.

* By the way : I do have an interesting idee to let this
succesfull W.J. Kenswil relive. It takes relatively small
amount of money when enough decendants participate.

The information about the transformation from Wilkens to Kenswil is fascinating. What slave literature are you referring to? Do you know when this liberation occurred. My great-grandfather was born in Holland with the name Kenswil in the mid-1800's. What is extra fascinating is that I am one of the very few white Kenswils that I know to exist. Of course, I do not have a picture of my great-grandfather, but my grandfather did not appear to be Black. Very mysterious!

Hallo there,
my first Kenswil was born in 1808. The same mother had 4 children between 1808 and 1813 with the name Kenswil. This was a free, light colored woman. One of the first names of the Wilkens clan was Unico. Because this is such a typical first name, one can trace a connection to the original Wilkens family probably through occurance of the connection Unico and Kenswil.
To correct an earlier contribution: Kenswil was not a name given to freed slaves at manumission, but a name given by one of the Wilkens men to their illegetimate children by already free colored women.
Christopher

Christopher,
You are incredibly knowledgable about the former Dutch colonies. Are you in Suriname?
My first Kenswil, also b 1808, is Hanna Elisabeth, daughter of Wilco H Wilkens and Sally Monsanto. I was wondering is this is the same Kenswil you mentioned. Are they related to you? My husband descends from Jeannette Susanna, b Dec 1816.Her son Hendrik Klaas Kenswil is his great-grandfather.I will hope to hear from you. Ann

Ann,
Have you seen this page:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/133847/thread/1026934483/last...

The part written by Christel (she is a Monsanto) mentions the names you also mention.
I can translate the part in English if you want me to.

Regards,
Henk