The New York State Archives in Albany houses many colonial Dutch records. Among those records is an account book of the West India Company, which includes payments for passage to New Netherland from 1650 to 1664. This is a great source of information about New Netherland ancestors. Example: Teunis Kraij This entry for Teunis Kraij translates to: Teunis Kraij from Venlo, debit for passage and victuals when he came here on the ship Draetvat [Wire Cask] on 2 April 1657 AD, skipper Jan Jansen … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Kleinkind
21 October 2019 by 1 Comment
A kleinkind is a grandchild. The term literally translates to "small child." A kleinkind can be a kleindochter (granddaughter) or kleinzoon (grandson). … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Klerk
14 October 2019 by Leave a Comment
A klerk is a clerk, a civil servant. Sometimes you will see klerk ter secretarie, which means a clerk at the administrative office of the municipality. You will often find clerks acting as witnesses in civil registration records, especially birth and death records. The informant of a death or birth record needed to have personal knowledge of the birth or death, but there was no such requirement for witnesses. They were often people who happened to be at town hall, such as clerks, though in … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Vrouwenkiesrecht
28 September 2019 by Leave a Comment
The term vrouwenkiesrecht means women's suffrage. Today it is exactly 100 years ago that women got the right to vote. The first elections were women actually got to vote was in 1920. General male suffrage was not that much older: only in 1917, men were given the right to vote without conditions on property or income. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Handschrift
23 September 2019 by Leave a Comment
The Dutch word handschrift has two meanings: handwriting and manuscript. The further we go back, the more difficult it is to get samples of our ancestors' handwriting, or know if they even could read and write. After 1811, civil registration birth, marriage, and death records include signatures of the parties, or a statement that they couldn't write. Before 1811, notarial or voluntary court records are a good place to look for signatures. Manuscripts are records that are hand-written. They … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Veiling
16 September 2019 by Leave a Comment
A veiling is an auction. You can sometimes find announcements of auctions in the paper, for example if a family is about to emigrate and is auctioning off their household items they won't take with them. Such an auction would be called a boelgoed in Friesland. Sometimes, notarial or voluntary court records were created to record the conditions and results of the auction. These can give you great insights into the lives of your ancestor since it shows you what items they owned. Auctions … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Cijns
2 September 2019 by 1 Comment
A cijns is the right to annual proceeds, similar to a rent. The rights could be attached to land or property, certain official functions, or rights in common grounds. In the Middle Ages up until say the 1700s, rents were often paid in kind, for example in grain. See the article about Rent registers for more information. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Rekening
26 August 2019 by 1 Comment
A rekening is an account or bill. Stadsrekeningen (city accounts) for example, record the income and expenses of a city. You can also find rekeningen in orphan chamber records, showing the assets and debts of an estate to determine the money owed to the orphans. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Onderwijzer
19 August 2019 by Leave a Comment
An onderwijzer was a teacher at a primary school. Appointments of teachers of public schools can often be found in the municipal administration or town records. Appointments of teachers of religious schools can often be found in the records of the church. … [Read more...]
Dutch term – Tijdschrift
12 August 2019 by Leave a Comment
A tijdschrift is a magazine. Many Dutch tijdschriften have been digitized and are available on Delpher. See the quick tip Find magazines and journals on Delpher for more information. … [Read more...]
