If your ancestors were farmers, try to find out who owned the farm. After 1832, you can check the Cadastre, before that time you can check real estate tax records or transport deeds in court records. Not many farmers owned their own farm. If they rented the farm from a rich or noble family, the archives of that family may have survived and may have records about your family. If they were serfs, the serf registers of the overlord may provide more information. For an example, read about two … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Soldaat
18 July 2016 by 1 Comment
A soldaat is a soldier, the lowest rank in the army. Before the French occupation, the Netherlands only had a professional army. Soldiers were recruited from all over Europe, bringing many Scots, Swiss and other soldiers to the country. Conscription for men between the ages of 20 and 45 was introduced in 1810. It was suspended in 1997, though never officially abolished. … [Read more...]
Record Analysis Example – Dutch Death Record
15 July 2016 by 3 Comments
Learning how to analyze a record is one of the most valuable skills we need to learn as a genealogist. To give you an example of how this works, let's take a look at the death record of my second great-grandfather Gerrit Jan van Nijkerken. Abstract: Warnsveld, 10 March 1924. Marinus August George Schoute, 37, overseer, living here, and Gerrit Pelgrum, 51, laborer, declare that on eight [corrected from six] March 1924 at 5.30 PM [corrected from 8.30 PM] died in a house in Warnsveld ward … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Visit Delft with Rick Steves
13 July 2016 by Leave a Comment
Rick Steves made a wonderful short video showing you the highlights of Delft. View video on Youtube. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Gemeentehuis
11 July 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Gemeentehuis (house of the municipality) or raadhuis (house of the council) is the town hall. In civil registration records, you will often encounter the gemeentehuis as the place where births, marriages and deaths were recorded. Civil marriages often take place at town hall. It also houses the offices of the mayor, municipal council and municipal clerks. Gemeentehuizen were originally found in the center of the town. In the 1900s, when bureaucracy increased, many places had larger town … [Read more...]
New Archive and Website in West-Brabant
8 July 2016 by Leave a Comment
Important news for those of us with ancestors from the western part of Noord-Brabant: a new regional archive, the West-Brabants Archief, will now house the records of the following municipalities: Bergen op Zoom Etten-Leur Halderberge Moerdijk Roosendaal Rucphen Steenbergen Woensdrecht Zundert Merger The West-Brabants Archief is the result of a merger of the archives department of Markiezenhof, the municipal archives of Bergen op Zoom; the municipal archives of … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Emigrants sometimes went to a Notary
6 July 2016 by 1 Comment
Before getting on board, an emigrant may have gone to a notary to: have a will drawn up (you never know if the ship will go down) give a power of attorney to a trusted friend or family member to handle their affairs enter into a work contract, including an agreement about the payment of the passage. This is especially true for richer emigrants, who had business affairs to put in order. They may have gone to a notary in their place of origin or to a notary in the their port of … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Plakkaat van Verlatinghe
4 July 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Plakkaat van Verlatinghe was the act whereby the Estates General of the Netherlands abjured their overlord, King Philip II of Spain, on 26 July 1581. This record is considered to be the birth record of the country of the Netherlands, similar to the Declaration of Independence in the United States. The original is in Spanish hands, as it was sent to the King. A draft version on display at the Nationaal Archief, the National Archives of the Netherlands and available online. … [Read more...]
The Ancestor Conspiracy
1 July 2016 by 14 Comments
Do you ever have a feeling that our ancestors are conspiring to be found? I certainly do! Back in 1993, just two years after I had begun doing genealogy, I used some money I had made baby sitting to buy the transcribed church records of Aalten in Gelderland. (And yes, I was a weird teen.) Soon afterwards, there was a query in Gens Nostra, the monthly magazine of the Nederlandse Genealogische Vereniging (Netherlands Genealogical Society), asking about an Aalten family. The writer was stuck … [Read more...]
Quick tip – It’s Never Been Easier to Verify Information
29 June 2016 by 1 Comment
Did you find your ancestor in an online index or tree? It has never been easier to verify the information using original records. Here are five places where you can find images of online records. WieWasWie, database with civil registration records and much more. Not all have images attached. Requires a subscription to view the images. Persons index at Archieven.nl, database with indexes and images from many archives in the Netherlands. Open Archieven, contains indexes and scans of … [Read more...]
