Unlike in some other countries, Dutch death records do not name the place of burial. This can make it hard to find out where your ancestor was buried. There are online websites that list graves, but since graves are routinely cleared after a few decades, the grave may not survive. Sometimes, you can find an announcement of the burial in the paper. You can also use burial registers of the church they attended to see if your ancestor was buried there. … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Guest blog post on FamilySearch
18 October 2017 by 1 Comment
Yvette Hoitink wrote a guest blog post on FamilySearch about How to Use Dutch Records on FamilySearch. Read about the amazing records that can be found online. Millions more Dutch records will be added in the coming weeks. … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Topotijdreis website
4 October 2017 by 1 Comment
The website Topotijdreis [Topo Time Travel] allows you to view old topographical maps from 1815 to 2015 of the area where your ancestors lived. Not quite the same as an actual time machine, but it will have to do! You can zoom in on the map or search for places in the top right corner. Different zoom levels have different maps, so be sure to zoom in and out. The slider on the left allows you to select the year that you want to see a map for. You can also hit the play button in the top left … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Check what’s available online
20 September 2017 by Leave a Comment
There are HUGE digitization projects going on in the Netherlands. So if it's been a while since you've checked what's available online, check again. The record you need may be waiting for you. For an overview of online records, see Digital Resources Netherlands and Belgium. … [Read more...]
Quick Tip – Women in New Netherland conference
13 September 2017 by 1 Comment
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in New York State, there will be a conference about "Women In New Netherland." Organizer: New Netherland Institute Dates: 22-23 September 2017 Where: Albany, New York More information: Women in New Netherland Conference page … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Talk to your oldest family members
6 September 2017 by 2 Comments
About ten years after I started doing genealogy, I was talking to my grandmother about her family. She asked me if I'd ever found out when her two aunts died. The last time she'd heard from them was about twenty years earlier, when they were in their 80s. In those days, I was focused on going back in time. I had blazed right through the 1900s and 1800s, back to the 1700s and 1600s where the research became more "interesting." No, I had not researched my great-grandmothers siblings in detail. … [Read more...]
Quick tip – The parents in the death record may be wrong
30 August 2017 by 3 Comments
Civil registration records are generally reliable. They are created on the day itself or a few days afterward. But not all information in the record is of the same quality. In my experience, the information about the parents in a death record is the least reliable of all the information you can find in civil registration records. The informant is usually a neighbor, not a family member, who probably never knew the parents of the deceased. They may have misheard, or misremembered. They may … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Two New Netherland Articles Published
9 August 2017 by 5 Comments
Two of my clients published articles in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (April 2017 issue) for which they used research I did for them: Harry Macy, "Origin of the Amerman and Terhune Families, and their Founding Mother Geertje Dirks." This article includes research I did to identify the origins of Albert Terhune, patriarch of the New Netherland Terhune family. Adrian Burke, "A Note on Origins of Alexander Glen, Alias Sander Leendertz Glen, of Schenectady County, New … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Where did the name come from?
2 August 2017 by Leave a Comment
When you hit a brick wall, it might be worthwhile to look at all the names in the family. Can you account for all the names of the children? Could one of them be named after a grandparent or former spouse? Last names can provide clues about a place of origin. Different suffixes in surnames point to different regions. A matching name does not amount to prove, but it is evidence we can use to guide our research and can help to build our case. See this article about Naming patterns for … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Netherlands category on Cyndi’s List
19 July 2017 by Leave a Comment
Cyndi's List is a wonderful directory of links to any genealogical topic you can think of. It has a Netherlands category with links to websites that are relevant if you're researching your Dutch ancestors. Cyndi's List is one of the few sites that I remember from my early internet days that is still online. I had the pleasure of meeting Cyndi Ingle, the woman behind the site, last year. The amount of information is huge, and expanding every day. You can help Cyndi by submitting new links, … [Read more...]
