The Laban line in Tholen, Zeeland, Netherlands

Although Laban is used as surname in several countries (and is a Biblical first name), there is one line of Labans who are descendants of a Loban. William Loban (1596–aft. 1637) went to Holland in 1620 as a soldier in the 2nd Company in the Regiment of Col. David Colyear, which settled in to Stavenisse, Tholen, Zeeland to help the protestant Dutch against Spain during the Eighty Years War (Dutch War of Independence) (1568–1648).

Map of Zeeland, Netherlands, showing location of Tholen Island and Goes. Source: Google maps.

GoogleEarth map of Tholen Municpality, showing some of the places connected to the Laban family: Stavinese, Sint Maartinsdijk, Tholen town, and also Nieuwerkerke in Schouwen-Duiveland.

This analysis of the Laban family tree is based on a tree developed by Raphaël Pautasso on Ancestry.com, which in turn has drawn on a textual descendants chart by Herman Post (2018) is now on this website.* The chart here shows 8 generations from William Loban, and allows us to see the following structure within the family, which is still centered in Zeeland (click here for readable base image). (This style of tree diagram is explained on the Rothiemay Area Lobbans page, which was the first of these analyses.)

Labans of Tholen tree analysis by Chris S. Lobban based on family tree courtesy of Raphaël Pautasso.

The known starting point for this tree is William Loban (1596–1637), known on Dutch genealogical sites as Willem Loban, the soldier who emigrated to Holland as described above. The tree also includes a purported father, Thomas Loban (1575–1622), m. Janet McDearmid, Thomas reputedly born in Aberdeen and died in the Netherlands. I think the evidence for this father, and also reputed birthplaces for William is insufficient, but William himself is well documented in both his marriage certificates as from Scotland. William first married Livina Dimmens 31 May 1621 at Sint Maartensdijk, Tholen, Zeeland, with whom he had three sons. After Livina died in 1627 he married Catelijne Teune, with whom he had four sons and a daughter. Of all these boys, we have so far found descendants only from Livina’s son Cornelis Willemsen Laban (1625–1682) m. Leunken Crijns Pippinck.

Two major branches start from two half-brothers, sons of Leunis Cornelisse Laban 1663 with Tanneken van der Daff and Jacomijntje Swancke, respectively: Cornelis Leunis Laban (1694–1739) m. Jacomintje Hubrechts Meulestee and Laban Leunis Laban (1707–1762) m. Martha Françoise Ellewitz.

Within the Cornelis 1694 branch, there is a second major split at two sons of Leunis Cornelisse 1732 = Maria P. IJserman, resulting in the two branches recognizable at the 8^th generation:

Cornelis Johannes Laban (1743–1798) m. Petronelle Janusdr Kaashoek and Willemijntje J Westdorp
Adriaan Laban (1755–1833), m. Neeltje Marinusse Klippel. In this branch are Adriaan Laban (1837–1915) from Nieuwerkerke, Schouwen-Duiveland, Zeeland, m. Helena de Jonge, who emigrated to Pessper, Michigan, USA in 1872 with one child, and were followed by his brother Jan Laban (1835–1921), m. Fransijna P. van IJsseldijk and nine children who settled in Grand Rapids, MI in 1881. Fransijna died in 1889 and Jan married another Dutch immigrant, Wilhelmina Kort.

Within the Laban 1707 branch three branches recognizable at the 8^th generation derive from three sons of Leunis Laban (1755–1805) m. Maria Pieterse Geluk:

Laban Leunisz Laban (1789–1852), m. Pieternella Quist. In this branch, Cornelis Pieter Laban (1915–2017), m. Elsbeth Hedwig Finke, emigrated to Australia with three boys, arriving in Fremantle, WA on 13 Jan 1955, and settling in Victoria.
Anthonij Laban (1800–1857), m. Jacoba van Hooren. In this branch Anthony Laban (1875–1943), born in Tholen town emigrated to Weston, MA, in the suburbs of Boston in 1892 and there in 1908 married Mary Magdalen Sharkey from Prince Edward Island, Canada. And Anthonetta Petronella Laban (1880–1958), m. Adrianus Jan van Woerko, is a great grandmother of Royal Highness Princess Mabel of Oranje-Nassau.
Jacob Leunis Laban (1803–1878), m. Maria A. Gunst. An article by J.P.B. Zuurdeeg on the Jacob Laban=Maria Gunst branch, “Stamreeks van M.J. Laban,” was published in the Tholen newspaper, Eendrachtbode, 11 May 2000, p. 11, and it refers to a book by M.J. Giljam, 1992, Tien familiennamen op Tholen en Sint Philipsland. [Deel 1:] Genealogische gegevens Bolier, Van der Doel, Enthoven, Hertog, Laban, Meulstee, Rosemont, Tiggem, Voshol en Van der Werf van de 17e eeuw tot omstreeks 1811. [Ten Family names on Tholen and Sint-Philipsland.] Thanks to Frans Berkelaar for this information.
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In this branch is the tailor Jacob Leonardus (“Papa”) Laban (1869–1952) m. baroness Martha von Wietersheim, who settled on the Riviera. Translation of the article. Also Martin Laban (1843–1923) emigrated to Ohio in 1872. This is the branch with our two DNA donors.

Newspaper story from 1951 about Jacques Léon Laban’s writing his memoirs. Courtesy of Cornelis Laban. Headline = “Papa” Laban (82) writes his memoirs.” The text in the box reads, “He made costumes for the ‘the great of the earth’ who came to the Riviera.” Photo caption: “First costumes, then big business, now memoirs.”

It seems likely that one of Jacob Leonardus Laban’s descendants may have been the source of our oNPE. The connection of #12 to #4 in the Laban line is established not only by the Y-DNA results presented here but also by Ancestry ThruLines analysis, based on autosomal chromosome analysis, that shows two cousins related to him through Jacob 1869’s great-grandfather, Leunis Laban (1755–1805).

*The descendants chart of William Loban (in Dutch) had been on the Post’s website but that has disappeared, and the pdf version now posted here is courtesy of Wim van Vliet of Seeland, one of William’s descendants.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Page by Christopher S. Lobban with input from Cornelis Laban and Raphael Pautasso. Posted 20 Oct. 2019, updated 22 Feb 2021.