Today is the 10th anniversary of the Benelux newsgroup for genealogy: soc.genealogy.benelux. I was one of the people who voted in favor of that group all those years ago. What began as a small group dominated by Americans with Dutch roots, is now a thriving online community where the majority of members are actually from the Benelux countries. … [Read more...]
Archives for May 2005
Wanderlust
Whenever I research emigrant families, I'm amazed by the distances that they travelled. People who previously probably hadn't even left their province yet, ended up circumventing half the globe. Sometimes it didn't stop there, and after a few years they packed up and moved again. … [Read more...]
Post World War II emigration
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. … [Read more...]
Emigration in the nineteenth century
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 … [Read more...]
New York
When surfing the internet, I discovered some great image databases with early images of New York City. For most of the emigrants from the Netherlands that went to the United States, New York was their first meeting with their new home. These online resources offer a nice glimpse into their world. … [Read more...]