Friesland is one of the northern provinces in the Netherlands. It borders on the province of Groningen in the east, Drenthe and Overijssel in the South, the IJsselmeer in the west and the North Sea in the north.

The capital city of Friesland is Leeuwarden. The largest towns are:

• Dokkum
• Sneek
• Bolsward
• Drachten
• Heerenveen
• Wolvega
• Franeker
• Harlingen

Language

Friesland is the only province in the Netherlands with an official language: Frisian. Although many people in Friesland also speak Dutch, many prefer to speak Frisian. The official documents in Friesland are drawn up in both Dutch and Frisian.

Genealogy in Friesland

Before 1811, hardly anyone in Friesland had a last name. People called themselves after their father, which was called a patronymic. For example: If a man was called Rindert and his father was called Oebele, Rindert would call himself 'Rindert Oebeles'. In Friesland, this tradition continued long after the civil registration was introduced in 1811 which forced everyone to take an official last name. Some people in Friesland today still give their child a middle name which is the same as their father's name.

For genealogical research in Friesland, the best places to start are Genlias or Tresoar. Tresoar is the Frisian provincial archive and has many online databases, including the civil registration and the records of nametaking in 1811.

Emigration

Especially in the period between 1880 and 1920, many people left Friesland to find a new home in the United States. Many of them settled in Michigan, although quite a few ended up in other states such as New York or Wisconsin.

Images

There are several online sources for images of Friesland:

• Friesland image database. Use 'vrije tekst' (free text) to type the name of the town or family you're looking for and then select 'Zoeken' (search). This database includes many photographs and postcards.
• Friesland atlas of about 1865-1870. This atlas includes both a map of the entire province and detailed maps of all the municipalities.

Map of Friesland, about 1865.

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 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.

For the nineteenth and twentieth century, the civil registration is the primary genealogical resource. All the births, marriages and deaths (BMD) were recorded. Usually, only using the civil registration you can compile a 'backbone' of a pedigree that goes back to the late 1700's.

Overijssel is a province in the east of the Netherlands. It borders on Germany in the east, Drenthe and Friesland in the north, Gelderland to the south and Flevoland and Gelderland to the west.

The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle. The largest towns are:

• Enschede
• Almelo
• Hengelo
• Oldenzaal
• Deventer

Hendrik Jan Warnshuis emigrated to Clymer, NY from Winterswijk. He was married three times. Hendrik Jan was not an agreeable man and had frequent problems with the law. His first two wives died under mysterious circumstances, although nothing was ever proven.

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.