If you can't find the name you're looking for, try a spelling variation. Most Dutch search engines only find exact matches, so playing around with variations and wildcards may be necessary to find the person you're looking for. Knowing the different spellings of certain sounds in words can help. Examples of spelling variations Element Example k, kk, or ck Hoitink, Hoitinck Bakker, Backer Van Dijk, van Dijck Dirk, Dirck o, oo Gosens, Goosens Noteboom, … [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.
Quick tip – Why Did He Die Elsewhere?
17 May 2017 by 4 Comments
Sometimes, you will find a death record that shows your ancestor died in a different place from where he was living all his life. Common reasons are: He was in a hospital receiving care. He was institutionalized in a mental hospital. This sometimes happened to elderly people who suffered from dementia. He was in jail. He was there on business. He may have been living with relatives. He may have been visiting relatives. If you read the death record, it should say whether … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Netherlands featured at Western European Family History Conference
12 May 2017 by 2 Comments
Next week, the Family History Library presents a week-long free conference about Western European Research. Each day focuses on a different country: Monday 15 May: Germany Tuesday 16 May: France Wednesday 17 May: The Low Countries Thursday 18 May: The Netherlands Friday 19 May: Switzerland. You can either attend in person in Salt Lake City or virtually by attending the webinar. Some of these lectures are especially interesting for those of us researching Dutch … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for April 2017
12 May 2017 by Leave a Comment
Here are some of the new websites and resources that have become available to us in the past month. Online Dutch records In Friesland, five thousand cards that recorded the hiding places of people in World War II were discovered. These include Jewish people and people who were involved in the resistance. The cards have been scanned and indexed and can be searched at the Onderduiken in Friesland [In Hiding in Friesland] website. The Redbot Digitization Project also scanned many other … [Read more...]
Five Resources for World War II Research
5 May 2017 by 2 Comments
It can be hard to find out what happened to your family in World War II, since it was often not talked about. Here are some resources that may help you. Newspapers (Delpher) The newspaper website Delpher has many digitized newspapers from World War II and afterward. Some things to look for: Names of your ancestors during the war Names of your ancestors after the war, for example to see if they were tried for collaboration. Articles about what was going on in the town where they … [Read more...]
Researching Relatives with Disabilities
28 April 2017 by 9 Comments
A forty-four-year-old man lies buried in Winterswijk, the Netherlands. His grave has an ordinary marker, but with an unusual design: it has a toy on it. People who walk past it wonder why a grown man would have a toy depicted on his grave. They don't know that the man who rests there was my uncle, Dinant, who had severe mental disabilities. During his birth, Dinant was deprived of oxygen. He suffered severe brain damage, resulting in mental disabilities. His condition got worse as he got … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Create a Property List
20 April 2017 by Leave a Comment
When you're researching a family who owned property, try making a list to see how they acquired it and where it went. Properties for which you can't find a purchase record may have been inherited from an older generation. Tracing the ownership of the property can help you identify other family members. This technique is one of the ways I was able to build a case to prove the parents of Griete Smit, as I wrote about in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly in December 2016. … [Read more...]
Quick tip – Watch Dutch Genealogy Webinar for Free
15 April 2017 by Leave a Comment
To celebrate the 500th webinar, Legacy Family Tree Webinars has a free access weekend from Friday 14 until Sunday 16 April 2017. The free webinars include Yvette Hoitink's Researching your Dutch Ancestors, which she presented in September 2015. Did you miss the free weekend? You can sign up for a membership. For $49.95, you can watch any of the 500 webinars and all the new ones for a whole year. Or if you like binge watching, you can get a one month subscription for just $9.95. … [Read more...]
How to find out if your ancestor served in the Dutch army
14 April 2017 by 8 Comments
Finding soldiers after 1811 If your male ancestor married between 1811 and 1932, the marriage supplements should have a declaration that he fulfilled his military duties. This declaration should show if the ancestor served or got an exemption. If you are lucky, the declaration will name the regiment. Another way to find out if your ancestor served is by consulting the militieregisters [militia registers], which recorded all men that were called up in a municipality in a given year. Some of … [Read more...]
Dutch Genealogy News for March 2017
7 April 2017 by 1 Comment
What's new in online Dutch genealogy this past month? New online records 700,000 marriage records from before 1811 from Gelderland were added to WieWasWie. Scans of marriage supplements of the Frisian municipalities of Achtkarspelen, Aengwirden, Ameland, Baarderadeel, Barradeel, and Bolsward have become available at AlleFriezen. Other municipalities to follow. Scans of notarial records of Alkmaar 1550-1842 have been added to FamilySearch. The notarial records of Limburg 1842-1895 … [Read more...]
