Many Dutch family names have prefixes like 'de' or 'van'. They have a special role in the Dutch family name which you have to be aware of when researching names with prefixes.

Prefixes and their meanings

The most common prefixes are:

• de - the
• van - from
• van de, van der, van den - from the
• te, ter, ten - on
  

Examples of such Dutch surnames: De Vries (the Frisian, person from Friesland), De Bakker (the baker), Van Raalte (from Raalte, a town in Overijssel), van den Heuvel (from the hill), te Kolste (on Kolste, a name of a farm).

Using prefixes in practice

In Dutch family names, family names are sorted without their prefixes, so 'Van Raalte' would be alphabetized as 'R'. If both the name 'Raalte' and 'Van Raalte' occur in the same index, 'Raalte' comes first, followed by 'Van Raalte', in indices most often written as 'Raalte, van'.

Many people use online sources for their genealogy that require you to fill in a family name. Most Dutch search forms that ask for a family name, require the name without the prefix. If you're looking for the Van Raalte family, only fill in 'Raalte' as family name. Sometimes a search form provides a separate textbox for the prefix. The Dutch word for prefix is 'Tussenvoegsel' or 'Voorvoegsel'.

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

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.