Dutch term – Kwartierverlies

The term kwartierverlies literally means ‘loss of quarters,’ where ‘quarters’ refer to a person’s ancestors. The usual English translation is ‘pedigree collapse.’ Kwartierverlies occurs when the parents of a child are related to each other, so the same ancestors occur in multiple places in the child’s pedigree chart.

An example of pedigree collapse is the Roerdink family from Winterswijk, where first cousin marriages happened multiple times. Read more about the Roerdink example of pedigree collapse.

Roerdink family tree

Roerdink family tree

About Yvette Hoitink

Yvette Hoitink, CG®, QG™ is a professional genealogist in the Netherlands. She holds the Certified Genealogist credential from the Board for Certification of Genealogists and has a post-graduate diploma in Family and Local History from the University of Dundee. She has been doing genealogy for over 30 years and helps people from across the world find their ancestors in the Netherlands. Read about Yvette's professional genealogy services.

Comments

  1. Yvette, I am of Dutch ancestry. How would I find out if my ancestors married their cousins? My ancestrer is Jan Hendrik Reuselink, my grt, grt grandfather. I believe my grt,grt,grt grandfather was Englebartus Reuselink.
    Thank you for any information

  2. MISS ANNA HEINS says

    Yvette, What does Pedigree mean on Dutch records? For example: Stamboom Griffioen Jellema Friese Adel. Thanks

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