Dutch term – slager

butcher cleaving the meat

Slager, print by Jan and Casper Luyken, 1694. Credits: Picturing the past.

A slager is a butcher. An old term for slager is ‘vleeshouwer’ or ‘vleeschhouwer’ (literally: meat cleaver).

Poor people did not often eat meat. One of the recurring themes in letters written by emigrants to the United States is their surprise that everyone is able to afford eating meat. These ‘spekbrieven’ [bacon letters] are one of the reasons why many relatives chose to follow them.

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. sjef claassen says

    Another name for slager is slachter.

    • They are similar but not the same today. A slachter is the person who kills the animal, the slager is the one who sells the meat. Historically, both tasks would have been done by the same person.

      • Judd Zandstra says

        Interesting to know there is a difference. I have an ancestor named Slager, which in later records was changed to Slagter, occupation vleeshouwer. Is this just an alternate spelling?

  2. Judd Zandstra says

    And according to family lore, my maternal great grandmother said that she liked the United States just find except that she couldn’t get any good horse meat.

  3. Jessie slager says

    Have you got any more information on slagers and their families?
    My family says we have always been labourers and couldn’t find any relatives that were butchers although, were all slagers

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