Archives for August 2013

Quick tip: Free access to Dutch-American newspapers

The Royal Library of the Netherlands has a website Delpher that provides free access to historical newspapers. Six Dutch-American newspapers have been added to the site: Sheboygan Nieuwsbode (1849-1861) De Grondwet (1883-1938) De Volksvriend (1892-1938) De Volksstem (1890-1911) Het Oosten (1914-1936) Onze Toekomst (1925-1927 and 1945-1952) The missing years will come online later this year. … [Read more...]

Dutch term: ondertrouw

"Ondertrouw" is the event when the banns for a marriage are published. Following the ondertrouw, the marriage is announced three times, at least a week apart (usually on 3 consecutive Sundays). If nobody objects, the marriage is usually performed shortly after the third publication of the banns. Banns were published in the place where the bride and groom lived. If they only lived there shorter than 6 months, they also needed to be published in their previous place of residence. It is not … [Read more...]

Column: virtual repository

"If you go back far enough, everybody is related," is a common quote when you tell people you're into genealogy . That is certainly the case with my father's side of the family tree. I started researching my ancestors over twenty years ago. Pretty soon, I discovered that my paternal grandparents, both from Winterswijk, shared multiple ancestors. Bit by bit, my tree grew from an ahnentafel to a population reconstruction of the entire region. … [Read more...]