I am having fun with an 1827 inventory of the assets belonging to an ancestor. I love reading between the lines to see what the items tell us about my ancestor. Here are some things I noticed. He owned multiple plots of land, had different crops in the field, and had several types of grain stored. Agriculture was likely his main source of income. He owned three cows, one calf, no bulls. Three cows is not enough to live off, so they were probably for their personal use and for the manure … [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...]
Quick tip – Emigrants in the 1800s came from poor areas
24 January 2018 by 8 Comments
If your ancestors left the Netherlands in the 1800s, chances are that they came from poor areas of the Netherlands such as East-Groningen, Friesland, Gelderland, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, Limburg, or East-Brabant. These agricultural communities were hit hardest when the potato famine struck in the 1840s, and later when cheap American grain flooded the market. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Stal
19 December 2016 by Leave a Comment
A stal is a stable. A stalhouder is a stable keeper. Originally this would have been a cattle farmer, but the meaning later changed to somebody who rents out horses and carriages. … [Read more...]
Another Long-term Tenant
17 June 2016 by Leave a Comment
A few weeks ago, I wrote about two tenancy contracts that showed that the Ten Haken farm in Winterswijk was in the family for three generations of tenants. As a result, reader Gerrit Stemerdink shared the story of his Wieberdink ancestors with me. They were tenants of the Wieberdink farm for more than two centuries. The following is an adaptation of the information he provided. Gerrit's great-grandfather Berend Willem Stemerdink was married to Christina Wieberdink (1861-1930). The … [Read more...]
