Viking history: A search for Danish ancestors in Europe

Pierre Dietrichsen, 9 September 2023

The raiding, invasion, and colonising of Europe and beyond by the Vikings took place mainly from the ninth to the eleventh century.  The term, Viking, was used for the first time in 793 AD. They were skilled seafarers and integrated with the inhabitants in the regions they colonised. In France it was mainly in Brittany and Normandy where they ruled.

The surname, Dietrichsen, was carried into various regions and countries by the Vikings and later by Danish migration. The surname travelled via Norway to Boston and the northeast of the USA (New York and Connecticut), and to England. There are families with the surname left in Scotland but in Germany they are scarce.

He speaker’s search took him to a conference in Rouen of a French cultural association, Les Normands de Paris which, among other things, research the Vikings in France. In Denmark he located seven persons with the family names Gert Johannes Pieter Dietrichsen. Attempts to make contact in the eighties were largely unsuccessful.

Pieter Dietrichsen set foot ashore at the Cape in 1783. His descendants took part in the Great Trek. The speaker’s great grandfather stayed in Standerton where his grandfather was also born.

During time given to questions some participants made some interesting comments.