| Physical descriptions in military records |
| Friday, 10 July 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As part of the appendices to a marriage record, the groom had to submit proof that he had fulfilled his military duties. This certificate of the National Militia often contains a physical description. In some cases, the physical description is left blank, for example if the man did not have to serve because he had brothers in the army already. This article will give an overview of the most frequent Dutch terms and their translations.
ExamplesSee this Flickr slideshow of some of the certificates of the National Militia in my collection. After you hit play, use the button on the lower right corner to view the samples fullscreen. TermsThe form itself
The values
Example: 'klein lidteeken op de linkerwang' = 'small scar on the left cheek'. The meassuresThe height of the men is often recorded in el, duim (d.), streep (str.). These are old names for meassures. However, they have been converted to metric and are used as such. 1 el = 1 meter (3'4"), 1 duim = 10 centimeters (4"), 1 streep = 1 centimeter (0.4"). So if somebody is 1 el 72 str. or 1 el 7 d. 2 str., this simply means he's 1.72 meters tall (about 5'8"). You can use WolframAlpha to convert meassurements from meters to feet and inches. For example, type 'convert 1.72 meters to imperial'. |
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