I am delighted to announce that I have been awarded the RQG Student Prize 2024 for the University of Dundee. The Register of Qualified Genealogists awards prizes each year to students who achieved the highest marks on their final thesis/dissertation. The University of Dundee's Family and Local History postgraduate degree (Master of Letters) is one of four qualifying programs. I completed that degree earlier this year and graduated with distinction. The University of Dundee selected my … [Read more...]
Map of the week – Krimpenerwaard water board, 1792
19 December 2024 by 1 Comment
This map shows the water board of Krimpenerwaard, the area around Schoonhoven, south of Gouda in the current province of South Holland. See the waterschap blog post to learn more about water boards. The map shows the different polders and streams in the water board's district. The map can help you locate ancestral properties if the polder is noted in land records. Note that the map is oriented with the north at the bottom of the map, as you can see in the compass. The vignette shows that … [Read more...]
5 Strategies to Find Elusive Dutch Ancestors
13 December 2024 by Leave a Comment
If you cannot find your ancestor from the Netherlands, here are five strategies for you. 1. Reanalyze what you have My first tip is to reanalyze what you already have. Take the time to go through every record and see if there is more evidence hiding in there. I have often found that when I do that, I come up with new ideas for further research, or I discover indirect evidence that I missed the first time. 2. Find out what other sources exist for the time and place The next strategy is to … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Brabant, 1659
9 December 2024 by Leave a Comment
In 1659, the famous mapmaker Joan Blaeu published his world atlas Tooneel des Aardrycks [Display of the Realm of Earth]. The archives in Leiden have made their atlas available online. This map shows the Duchy of Brabant. It is oriented with the north toward the right. You can see that various places that are now part of the province of North Brabant, such as the area around Willemstad and Heusden, were then part of the province of Holland (outlined in pink). The former Duchy of Brabant is now … [Read more...]
Quick Tip – Legacy Family Tree Webinar Sale
4 December 2024 by Leave a Comment
Legacy Family Tree Webinars is having a sale this week, through to Friday the 6th. You can now get a year-long subscription with 50% off, for $24.98. This gives you access to 2,311 webinars including the following webinars I presented: Researching Your Dutch Ancestors Lesser Used Records for Research in the Netherlands Using MyHeritage to Find Ancestors From the Netherlands Dear Me - Writing Research Reports to Yourself If you use one of these links to purchase a membership … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Ruilverkaveling
4 December 2024 by 1 Comment
Ruilverkaveling means to trade plots of land to consolidate land ownership. At the beginning of the 20th century, land ownership was fragmented. Larger plots were easier to work with machines. As mechanization of agriculture increased, so did the demand to consolidate the small plots in larger plots. The first ruilverkaveling took place on the island of Ameland in 1916. Generations of estate divisions among several heirs had resulted in tiny plots. In one part of Ameland, 119 owners owned … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Cultural bias
28 November 2024 by Leave a Comment
I recently took Dr. Sophie's Pharos Course Critical Thinking Approaches for Genealogy. One of the things that she encouraged us to do is identify our biases, so we can find ways to address those and minimize the impact on our research. That led me to thinking about the cultural biases I may have as a Dutch researcher. I grew up with the idea that the Netherlands is a tolerant country. We were the first country in the world to legally allow same-sex marriages, for example. In school, we are … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Dikes and Dunes near Petten, 1730
25 November 2024 by Leave a Comment
This week, we are looking at a map of the area south of Petten in the province of Holland (now North-Holland) in 1730. The water board commissioned the map from Jan Spruytenburgh and Hendrik de Leth. The map tells the history of the landscape, and reclaiming the land to create polders. On the left side, we see the smaller polders surrounding by dikes, created in the medieval period. On the right, we see the large polder of the Zijpe, one of the first industrial-scale commercial reclamations, … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for November 2024
22 November 2024 by Leave a Comment
Here is an overview of the new sources, projects and other news announced in the past month. Sources Birth records 1903-1912 from Enkhuizen, Hoogkarspel, Schellinkhout, Venhuizen, Westwoud, and Wijdenes can now be found at the Westfries Archief. The correspondence of Cristofforo Suriano, the first Venetian diplomat in the Dutch Republic in the early 1600s, is now available online. A card catalog of missing persons in World War II has been digitized and is now available via the … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Beware of Silver Badminton Medals
20 November 2024 by 2 Comments
When I was a child, I played badminton for a couple of years. I liked playing but was never any good and did not play in competitions. However, like all members, I did participate in the annual badminton club championships. There were different categories, based on gender, age, and whether or not you played competitively. One year, I was one of only two girls in my category. We played a match, I lost. And then I got the silver medal for coming second in my category. I sometimes think … [Read more...]
