Unless stated otherwise, the content on this website is © Yvette Hoitink. You are free to use the information from this website, including the articles and images, for your personal, non-commercial use as long as credits are given. However, you are not allowed to republish the content of this website without prior consent. When in doubt, please contact us.

How to cite this website

The preferred way to cite an article is:
Yvette Hoitink: "Farm names", from Yvette's Dutch Genealogy Homepage, http://www.dutchgenealogy.nl.

The preferred way to give credits for a photograph is:
Photography: Yvette Hoitink

The preferred way to give credits for used genealogical information is:
Source: Yvette's Dutch Genealogy Homepage, http://www.dutchgenealogy.nl

Last week, my friend Mary Risseeuw from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and I gave a presentation at the International Congress for genealogical and heraldic Sciences in Maastricht. The title was "We're all fresh and healthy. Emigration from the Netherlands to the United States in the 19th century. The slides are now available online.

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.

Many Dutch people took American names when they came to the US. Some common combinations are listed here. All of these combinations have been found in actual documents, even though the translations aren't always what you would expect.

Birth records are a part of the civil registration. A birth record lists the following data:

• Place, date and time of birth
• Names of parents
• Name, profession and age of the one registering the birth (often the father)
• Names, profession and age of the witnesses
• Often: address where the birth took place

The province of Noord-Brabant lies in the south of the Netherlands. It borders on Limburg to the east, the country of Belgium to the south, the province of Zeeland to the west and the provinces of Zuid-Holland, Utrecht and Gelderland to the north.

The capital city of Noord-Brabant is Den Bosch, also known as 's-Hertogenbosch. Other larger towns are:

• Breda
• Eindhoven
• Tilburg
• Roosendaal
• Oss

Hermanus Piek and Johanna Catharina Bekerink emigrated to the United States together with their three children. They settled in Clymer, NY.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, conditions in Europe were poor. Crops were failling all over Europe and many people hardly made enough money to feed their families. For this reason, many people decided to emigrate to the United States, where farmland was plenty and people hoped they could begin a new life. In the Netherlands, some people also had religious reasons to emigrate. The had seceded from the Dutch Reformed Church and were being oppressed by the goverment. The United States offered to them not only better economic prospects, but also the chance to celebrate their religion as they saw fit.