Easy rule of thumb for working with Dutch records: If you wanted it or needed it, there probably was a tax on it. Marriage tax. Window tax. Hearth tax. Beer tax. Tobacco tax. Servant tax. Petrol tax. Dog tax. Real estate tax. Genealogists must be the only people in the world who like taxes, because of the wonderful records they created! … [Read more...]
WikiTree Challenge – Yvette Hoitink
7 June 2021 by 4 Comments
This is going to be fun. I have been invited for the WikiTree Challenge. WikiTree is a collaborative tree, where everybody contributes their knowledge, like Wikipedia for genealogy. Each week in 2021, a team of WikiTreers is collaborating on the tree of a special genealogy guest star. They want to make their genealogy here more accurate and complete than it is anywhere else. This week it is my turn! I look forward to seeing what they will find. On my father's side, all my brick walls are … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for May 2021
4 June 2021 by Leave a Comment
This is an overview of new sources, projects, and other news that was announced last month. Sources Erfgoed 's-Hertogenbosch added scans of the Smulders card catalog of the court records of Den Bosch to their website. These cards index the aldermen's court records before 1811. The Brabants Historisch Informatie Centrum added photos by Martien Hermsen to their online image collection. These photos show the area around Mill in World War II. A new index was published of the Admission … [Read more...]
Virtual Dutch-American Conference
2 June 2021 by Leave a Comment
AADAS, the Association for the Advancement of Dutch-American Studies, is holding a virtual conference: Telling, Sharing, and Preserving Dutch-American Stories on 18 and 19 June 2021. Registration is free for AADAS members. The keynote speaker will be Dr. George Harinck, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, who specializes in the cultural history of Dutch Protestantism in the 19th and 20th centuries and has published widely on this topic. Other speakers include Suzanne Sinke, Mary Risseeuw, Penny … [Read more...]
Certification renewed – Are you ready to become certified?
28 May 2021 by 1 Comment
Great news: my Certified Genealogist® credential was just renewed for another five years! I have been a board-certified genealogist for five years now, as the first and so far the only genealogist in the Netherlands. Every five years, we have to show our work still meets standards by submitting a portfolio with work samples to the Board for Certification of Genealogists. I submitted a case study and one of my Eleanor of Aquitaine blog posts. I have submitted the case study for publication in … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Investigate gaps between children
26 May 2021 by 1 Comment
If you are researching a family before in the period before modern birth control methods, a gap in children is worth investigating further. Possible reasons for the gap include: You may not have found all the children yet. For example, the family may have lived elsewhere, and you have not consulted the birth or baptismal records there. There may have been stillbirths or miscarriages. Since the introduction of the civil registration (1811 in most parts of the Netherlands), stillborn … [Read more...]
Level 4 Checklist – Property ownership, military service, religion, criminal activity
21 May 2021 by 4 Comments
A few months ago, I issued my Level-Up Challenge, challenging you to assess how complete your research is. By level 2, we know the names of our ancestors and where and when they were born, married and died and by level 3, we also have to know their occupations, places of residence, and their children and spouses. To reach level 4, we also need to know what property they owned, if they served in the military, what religion they were, and if they were involved in any criminal activities. In … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Mangelhoudster
17 May 2021 by Leave a Comment
A reader asked me about the term mangelhoudster. It literally means "keeper of a mangle." The mangle would be a dvice to put laundry through to dry and flatten it. The occupation is mainly found in and around Amsterdam. It could be that the mangelhoudster owned a mangle that others could use for a fee, or that she was a laundress herself. I have tried to find more documentation about the occupation but did not find much. An entry in the J.B. Glasbergen's Beroepsnamenboek [occupation's book], … [Read more...]
FAQ About my Eleanor of Aquitaine Project
14 May 2021 by 5 Comments
If you're a regular reading of this blog, you will have seen my series about verifying my possible line back to Eleanor of Aquitaine. I have proven 28 out of 29 generations so far. Many people have contacted me or left comments saying they love the series and seeing all the different records. Thank you for doing that; it's a great encouragement for me. Some questions come up repeatedly, so I thought I'd write a blog post with answers to the Frequently Asked Questions about the project. How … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Use “PROX” in Delpher
12 May 2021 by 1 Comment
Delpher is the website where you can find newspapers, magazines, and books published in the Netherlands. Because of the huge amount of sources on this website, you will often get many results. You can do a more specific search by searching for two terms that must appear near each other with the PROX parameter. Examples: Hoitink PROX Nijkerken (combining the last names of an ancestral couple) Hoitink PROX Winterswijk (last name + place of residence) Hoitink PROX Berkstraat (last … [Read more...]
