The web in 1993

At that time, the World Wide Web had just been invented. There was only one browser out there: Mosaic (I even tried the beta versions!). Almost all websites out there were academic websites.

In the Netherlands, there were no websites on genealogy. I did not know a single genealogist who had internet access on this side of the ocean. I knew there were a couple of people in the US who had internet access, so I decided to create a web page for them with links about Dutch Genealogy.

Typical for the early 1990s, I called it "Yvette's Dutch Genealogy Homepage". In the beginning, it was just one page with links to any website I could find that had remotely anything to do with the Netherlands and history and/or genealogy. I also included some tips on how to research your Dutch ancestors.

I was overwhelmed by the response I got. Many people thought they had found in me somebody who could do the research for them. Time and time again, I had to explain that I was willing to give pointers, but I would not actually visit archives or long-lost relatives for them.

Yvette's Dutch Genealogy Homepage in 1998

Internet genealogy and me

In the Netherlands, my website was also being noticed. About a year after I started my website, I was invited to give a lecture during the national convention of computer genealogists. Being only 19 at the time, this was pretty daunting. On the same day, I got another invitation to do a lecture for a smaller group a couple of weeks before the convention. I decided to use that as a sort of try-out and did both lectures. One lecture led to another which helped me pay my way through uni ("no wine please, a gift certificate for books is most welcome!").

Sometimes my being so young led to funny situations. When I showed up for one of the lectures and introduced myself as the one giving the lecture, they told me "What do you mean you're giving the lecture? We've invited an expert!" O well, I guess that's what you can expect as a 19-year-old girl having a hobby where most people are retired men!

In retrospect, this was the beginning of my carreer in the digital heritage sector. About a year later, in 1997, I was on national television for a TV-course on genealogy, telling viewers about using the internet for genealogy. My boyfriend and I started our own computer firm in that year as well and immediately were asked by archives to help build their websites. I have been professionally involved in creating online access to historical information ever since. Currently, I'm ICT consultant and project manager at the National Archives in The Hague. I was also asked to write a book about internet genealogy, which I wrote together with a friend. This book has now been re-printed about  10 times in two different editions.

Changing role of my website

After the pioneering years, the role of my website changed. Other websites came and took over parts of the function. Archives got their own websites and more and more Dutch people got online. There were too many websites about Dutch genealogy to keep track of all of them.

Instead of trying to be one of many portals out there, I decided to go back to my roots: trying to help descendants of Dutch immigrants find their ancestors. I did a complete redesign and added lots of articles about how to do research. I have some links to other websites, but do not pretend to be complete. I also put my own database online this year. This has led to many interesting contacts and also ended up saving me a lot of time since people could now help themselves.

Future?

I don't yet know what the future will bring. I am working on bringing more and more of my research online. Not just my database, but also my primary sources like the photos I take in the archives which I'm putting on Flickr. This website will likely remain a hub for all my online genealogical activities.

If you have ideas on how to evolve this website, I would love to hear from you!

I've just added a Dutch genealogy store to the site. In this store, visitors can buy books, DVDs and prints about Dutch genealogy, history and culture. I've selected publications that I think would benefit somebody researching his Dutch roots. The store is powered by Amazon. This website receives a commission for all sales, enabling this website to remain free.

In 2007, I wrote a guide on how to set up image banks. The aim of the guide is to share best practices in creating online access to collections of images.  

The project was an initiative of the Taskforce Digital Accessibility of Archives (Taskforce Archieven) in the Netherlands. We formed a project group, consisting of image bank specialist from several archives in the Netherlands. I was involved as project manager and author of the guide. 

The Dutch National Archives are involved in a project to share knowledge with their Croatian counterparts. As part of this program, the guide was translated into English and then into Croatian. I thought visitors of this website might also be interested in this guide, so I put the English version here as well. The guide is available under a Creative Commons license, so feel free to share the document with others.

Download 'Setting up an image bank' (PDF, 381 KB).

The Nationaal Archief, the National Archives of the Netherlands, has now joined Flickr the Commons. Like the Library of Congres, the Nationaal Archief is now using Flickr as a means to create wider access to the photo collection and ask the visitors for help in describing the collection. The first collections include a set of pictures of emigrants.

I've just updated the genealogical database. It now includes about 42,500 people and their families. This includes almost 3,200 emigrants from the eastern part of the Achterhoek who emigrated to the United States in the nineteenth century. This is just the tip of the iceberg and is by no means complete. I did enter all of the Winterswijk emigrants I could find in the period 1840-1880, often with their ancestors as well.

In the days before the Civil Registration forced everyone to stick to a surname, people in the eastern part of the Netherlands were named after the farm they lived at. You can still see that in the surnames today: Derk te Kolste, Piet te Lintum, Gerrit Jan Hoitink, etc. Since the surname might change every time a person moved, this sometimes offers difficulties in tracing your ancestors. There are some strategies to help you solve those name puzzles.

Gelderland is a province in the east of the Netherlands. It borders on Germany to the east, Overijssel, Flevoland and Utrecht to the north, Noord-Brabant to the south and Zuid-Holland and Utrecht to the west.

The capital city of Gelderland is Arnhem. Other large towns are:

• Nijmegen
• Apeldoorn
• Zutphen
• Doetinchem
• Tiel

Jan Willem Wilterdink and his wife Willemina Gesiena Fonhof emigrated from Winterswijk to Clymer in 1883 together with their family. Their son Herman married a woman from Alabama, but could not cope with her homesickness with dramatic results.

After World War II was over, many people wanted to start a new life across the ocean. Five years of war had destroyed the Dutch economy, and it would take years to recover. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many Dutch people emigrated to Australia, Canada and the United States.