Older Dutch records often use words that no longer exist in modern Dutch, or that have changed meaning. Modern dictionaries or automatic translators will often get it wrong. Using an older Dutch-English dictionary may help you understand the meaning. One such dictionary is A Large Dictionary English and Dutch, where the second half is Dutch-English. The dictionary is from 1754. … [Read more...]
About this website
Creating a website like this is a fun activity. There are so many options, so many choices. What do visitors want? What do I want? In this blog I will describe some of the things I encounter in developing and maintaining this website.
Was Eleanor of Aquitaine my Ancestor? Generation 23 – John II of Brabant
17 January 2020 by 8 Comments
This is the twenty-fourth post in a series about my possible line of descent from Eleanor of Aquitaine. In the first post, I explained how I discovered the possible line, and how I am going to verify it one generation at a time. In the last post, I proved that my nineteenth great-grandfather Jan van Wijfliet, Lord of Blaasveld, was the illegitimate son of John II Duke of Brabant by his mistress Elsbeen van Wijfliet. From this point on, the ancestors are known historical figures, whom I will … [Read more...]
Celebrating 1,000 Dutch Genealogy Posts!
10 January 2020 by 8 Comments
It blows my mind, but this is the 1,000th post I've written for this blog. I started the website in 1993 as a links website, and changed it to a blog in 2005. Some of the early articles I wrote are still among the most popular. Most popular posts The most popular posts of all time have been: Top 10 most common Dutch surnames (2013). This page by itself generates about 8% of my page views. Why the Little Dutch Boy Never Put his Finger in the Dike (2017). How to Find the … [Read more...]
Quick tip – New website Amsterdam City Archives
8 January 2020 by 2 Comments
The Amsterdam City Archives is changing the part of their website to search the finding aids, indexes, and image bank. One great new feature is that the indexes search function now searches all indexes at once. You can use * as a wildcard to search for spelling variations like Jans* for Jans, Jansen, Janszen, and Janssen. The new image viewer no longer requires Flash, which used to cause problems on many systems. Another improvement is that the website is now mobile-friendly. The … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for December 2019
3 January 2020 by Leave a Comment
Here is an overview of the new sources, projects, and news about archives that were announced last month. Online sources MyHeritage added an index of notarial records from many different archives in the Netherlands over the period 1600 to 1935. This information was already available on the website of the participating archives and on Open Archives, but is now available for record matching for people who have their tree at MyHeritage. The Tilburg archives have no made 500 charters … [Read more...]
Dutch Records that became Public on 1 January 2020
1 January 2020 by Leave a Comment
Happy New Year everybody! Many records become public after 25, 50, 75, or 100 years. Here is an overview of some of the records that became public as of 1 January 2020. Exceptions may exist for records that involve people that could still be alive. Civil registration records: Birth records from 1919 Marriage records from 1944 Death records from 1969 Legal records: Court records from 1944 Police records from 1944 National government records: Minutes of the … [Read more...]
Born with a Silver Spoon in her Mouth
27 December 2019 by 1 Comment
We all know the expression "born with a silver spoon in your mouth." But for one little girl from Friesland, this was almost literally the case. When Geertje Gerrits Heslinga was born on 15 December 1742, her parents had a silver spoon made to commemorate the event. The spoon was engraved with her name and birth date. It is now part of the collection of the Fries Scheepvaartmuseum in Sneek. Such silver spoons were a tradition in Friesland, among richer families. The silversmith is … [Read more...]
Was Eleanor of Aquitaine my Ancestor? Generation 22 – Jan van Wijfliet
20 December 2019 by 8 Comments
This is the twenty-third post in a series about my possible line of descent from Eleanor of Aquitaine. In the first post, I explained how I discovered the possible line, and how I am going to verify it one generation at a time. In the last post, I proved that my eighteenth great-grandmother Lijsbeth van Mieren was the daughter of Jan van Wijfliet, Lord of Blaasveld. Jan van Wijfliet, son of Duke John II of Brabant The previous phase uncovered a rent for 116 pounds given to Jan van Wijfliet in … [Read more...]
Quick Tip: If they enjoyed it or needed it, there was a tax on it
18 December 2019 by Leave a Comment
Throughout the history of the Netherlands, various levels of government have taxed items that the residents needed or enjoyed. The taxes vary over time and place. Examples of taxes that have been levied in the Netherlands at different times and places: Hearth tax Salt tax Spice tax Horse tax Mill tax Income tax Real estate tax Asset tax Estate tax (death duties) You can find tax records in the government records of the different levels of government. My … [Read more...]
Ten Trends in a Decade of Dutch Genealogy
13 December 2019 by 1 Comment
As we are nearing the end of the 2010s, I thought it would be nice to look back on the past ten years to see how much genealogy in the Netherlands has changed. 1: Growth of online scans At the start of the decade, many archives had indexes online but often without scans. The drop in prices for scans and storage have caused a great boost to online availability of records. Most archives in the Netherlands have digitized their most popular collections, which typically include the civil … [Read more...]
