The Warringa Family Project is open to all who are interested in working together to find their common heritage through sharing of information and DNA testing. All variant spellings are welcome. If your Surname is missing and should be included, we'll be glad to add it.

The Dutch surname Warringa is a patronymic type of surname in that it derives from the father's forename. The Warringa family originate from the province of Drenthe in the Northeast Netherlands. This area along with the neighbouring provinces of Groningen and Friesland generally used the patronymic naming system until it was stopped by the Emperor Napoleon in the early 19th century. The surname Warringa was first used as a permanent surname in 1829.

Adoption of Surnames [Acte van Aangave]: Odoorn. 21 July 1829. The person of Warrink Egberts, mentioned in the death register for March, and Warrink Warringa, from the Memorandum of Succession, are one and the same person. Warringa, is the adopted family name and first used in 1826.

The index to the register of name adoptions mentions under the surname Warrink that it was registered twice at Anloo; 1811 # 12; 1826 # 8.

The Dutch Drenthe Warringa family can be traced through various documents to their Y-DNA paternal progenitor Warrijs Smidt who was born circa 1575 and lived in the village of Borger. His byname of Smidt indicates that he was a blacksmith and in the legal records of Drenthe [Goorspraken] he is recorded on the 14 March 1599 in a dispute with the villagers of Westruppe near Borger concerning dues for stabling horses; then in 1601 he is mentioned in a case of wounding Jan Janss. Earlier ancestry for Warrijs the smith is unknown, but it should be mentioned that Warrijs is not a particularly common forename and there are others documented as using the Warrijs name in Beilen, which is about 20km west of Borger in the early 16th century and the Warynge name is recorded in Drenthe as far back as the late 14th century.

There is also a completely separate family surnamed Warringa that originates from Friesland and perhaps there are others; but this Warringa Y-DNA project is for the Drenthe family. So people with Drents Warringa ancestry all descend from Warrink Egberts who was born 6 December 1751 at Odoorn, Drenthe. Netherlands and whose descendants adopted the permanent surname of Warringa.

But this Y-DNA project is also to find anyone sharing the same Y-DNA and they may have a completely different surname! For example Warrink Egberts was the son of Egbert Warrings who had another son called Harm Egberts; by the same Napoleonic decree his descendants were surnamed Harms.

The use of the patronymic naming system for someones surname really means it is impossible to readily identify familial relationships, so matching Y-DNA is a great way to to do this; so not having the surname Warringa does not disqualify you from being a member of this family, you just need matching Y-DNA.