The Staatscourant [National Gazette] is the official newspaper of the Dutch government. Established in 1814, the gazette publishes all laws, regulations, and other official announcements of the Netherlands. Genealogical information in the Staatscourant Some announcements deal with individuals. A few examples of genealogical information you can find in the gazette: Appointments, transfers, promotions, or pensions of civil servants, including public school teachers, police officers, etc. … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Goeree-Overflakkee over time
5 August 2024 by Leave a Comment
This week we are looking at a map of the island of Goeree-Overflakkee, including two historical maps. The center of the map shows the island as it was in 1842, when the map was created. The island was then called Goedereede en [and] Overflakkee. On the left shows the situation in 1750, when the islands of Goeree and Overflakkee were still seperated at high tide. The right shows the situation around 1300, when the claiming of land had just started. Today, the combined island is part of the … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Look for Employees and Officials
2 August 2024 by Leave a Comment
Records often mention two groups of people: the people who the records are about, and the people who work for the organization that created the records. As genealogists, we often only think about the first category. But we can learn a lot from the records about the employees or officials too. A few examples: Record About Employees or officials Civil registration people who are born, married, or died mayor, aldermen, clerks witnessing records Police … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Veendam, circa 1868
29 July 2024 by Leave a Comment
Between 1865-1868, Jacob Kuyper published a series of atlases with municipal maps. These show the location of all the hamlets, villages, and larger towns in the municipality, as well as the main roads and railroads. The Kuyper maps are often available at the websites of archives or via Wikimedia Commons. This week we are looking at Veendam, a municipality in Groningen. "Veendam" means "peat dam." The thin rectilinear plots reflects its peat mining history. The area was known for shipbuilding. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Gaarder
24 July 2024 by Leave a Comment
A gaarder is a collector, typically of taxes or tariffs. You may come across the term doing research in the province of Holland between 1695 and 1806, when a special tax ("impost") was levied on marriages and burials. The duties that had to be paid depended on the economic circumstances of the bridal couple or the deceased. The records of those taxes are known as the gaarderboeken [collectors' books]. These records can be used as substitutes for marriage and burial records. The actual … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Children not in School, 1887
22 July 2024 by Leave a Comment
This week we are looking at a thematic map from 1887. It shows the percentage of children between the ages of 6 and 12 who were not in primary school. The statistics were shown per municipality. The darkest blue color represents areas where more than 30% of children did not go to school. A zoomable version is available at Gallica. The map shows great differences between parts of the Netherlands. In general, municipalities in the north had higher school attendance than municipalities in … [Read more...]
How to Convert Old Dutch Weights and Measures
19 July 2024 by 1 Comment
In the Netherlands, the metric system was introduced in 1816. Before that time, different areas used different weights and measures. Not only did they use different terms, but the amount indicated by the term could differ from one place to the next. The Meertens Instituut website has an overview of all the different measures in the country, organized by town, province, or type of measure/weight. If you come across a weight or measure in a record, you can use this website to figure out how … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Roermond after city fire, 1671
15 July 2024 by Leave a Comment
This week's map is a drawing of the city of Roermond in 1671. It shows the effects of the city fire of 31 May 1665. The houses with the blue roofs were spared, the ones with the red roofs had been destroyed and rebuilt. Fires were a constant threat to our ancestors. In the seventeenth century, many houses were still built with or from wood. Increasingly, cities passed ordinances requiring houses to be built out of brick, or fill the panels between the timber frames with brick, and to use … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Stamboek
10 July 2024 by Leave a Comment
A stamboek is a military service register. Outside genealogy, the word stamboek is also used for a studbook, a register of the pedigree of purebred animals. This usage has led several genealogy websites, including Ancestry, to mistranslate the stamboek military records as "studbooks." … [Read more...]
Map of the Week – Overijssel, 1659
8 July 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 week we are looking at his map of Overijssel. It shows the IJssel river on the west, which connected the to the North Sea in the north and the Rhine river in the south, bringing prosperity to the area. The area of Twente in the east shows different cities, including Oldenzaal ("Oldenzeel" on the map), where … [Read more...]
