An audiëntieblad (literally: audience sheet or audience paper) are the transcripts of court sessions, created by court clerks. Audiëntiebladen record the cases that were heard on a day, including continuances. Some include the verdicts, but sometimes the verdicts are kept in a different series. You can find audiëntiebladen in the series of court records of the local and district courts. Court records older than 75 years are typically kept at the regional historical centers in the provincial … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Parlevinker
26 December 2022 by Leave a Comment
A parlevinker is a trader who sells his wares, usually groceries, by boat. They can often be found in harbors. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Boerin
19 December 2022 by Leave a Comment
A boerin is a female farmer. Women worked alongside the men on a farm. They were often responsible for the work in and around the farm, taking care of the animals and food preparation, while the men mostly worked the fields. But in August, everyone would work together to get the harvest in. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Gang
12 December 2022 by Leave a Comment
A gang is a hallway. You may encounter the term in estate inventories, that tally the items per room in the house. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Grens
28 November 2022 by 1 Comment
A grens is a border. Municipal borders determined where a couple would register the birth of their child, where they were taxed, where they would apply for a permit. Judicial borders determined which court prosecuted a ciminal, granted a divorce, or appointed a guardian. Borders affected our ancestors' lives. My ancestor Arend Kastein moved across the street and tried to apply for a job as a policeman. But since that street happened to be the Dutch-German border, he needed to be … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Levende have
21 November 2022 by Leave a Comment
Levende have means livestock. You may come across the term as a heading in inventories of estates in notarial records or voluntary legal records. Just because someone owned livestock does not mean that they made their living by farming. Many people owned a goat or cow for their milk. They may have sold the surplus, but would have other means of income. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Dorsen
14 November 2022 by 1 Comment
Dorsen means to thresh. The person doing the threshing is the dorser. You will not often find that as an occupation as it was just one of many jobs farms or their laborers did. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Stadhuis
7 November 2022 by Leave a Comment
The stadhuis (literally: city house) is the town hall. Town hall is where people would register births and deaths for the civil registration, and where civil marriages would take place. It was often the place where the aldermen's court convened, and where the town clerks kept their registers. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Kind, kinderen
24 October 2022 by 1 Comment
A kind is a child, plural kinderen. You may come across the term in wills, guardian appointments or other types of notarial and court records. … [Read more...]
Source – Church Membership Records
21 October 2022 by 1 Comment
Church membership records or lidmatenboeken record the members of a church. Church membership records are typically kept by protestant churches, like the Dutch Reformed Church. In the protestant faith, people become members by confession of faith as adults. This is different than in the Roman Catholic Church, that considers people as members from the moment of baptism, often in infancy. Structure of church membership records Church membership records are typically kept in chronological … [Read more...]
