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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Dutch and North German : patronymic from the personal name Wessel 1.
  • One of the most prominent fur traders in New Netherland in the 1660s was Dirck Wessels(e) (1637–1717), who probably came to New Netherland before 1650 with his father, Wessel Wesselse, a West India Company employee. He also bore a secondary surname, <xref>Ten Broeck</xref>.

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