The Dutch word getuige means witness. Getuigen can be found in many different types of documents, such as birth and marriage records or baptismal records. In original records and transcriptions, the word is often abbreviated to get. … [Read more...]
Dutch term: Persoonskaart
30 September 2013 by 3 Comments
A persoonskaart is a personal record card, introduced in 1939 to register who lived where. Persoonskaarten are one of the most important sources for research in the 20th century, because they are one of the few records that can be obtained within 50 years after a person's death. Read the article about Personal record cards for more information. … [Read more...]
Marriage booklets: why they are important even if you can’t find them
27 September 2013 by 9 Comments
In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, municipal authorities began to hand out "trouwboekjes" [marriage booklets] to the bride and groom at the time of their marriage. This booklet would contain the names of the spouses, date and place of their marriage, and had room for the names, birth places and birth dates of any children born to this couple. These booklets can be hard to find, as they are personal documents rather than government documents. The place to find them is in your family, … [Read more...]
Dutch term: burgemeester
23 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
The term burgemeester means 'mayor'. Before 1795, when the French occupied the Netherlands and introduced new laws, most towns had more than one mayor. These were elected officials. Since 1795, each municipality only has one mayor. Mayors are appointed by the crown. In early records of the civil registration, it is not unusual for a mayor of a small town to act as the clerk registering the births, marriages and deaths in the civil registration records. … [Read more...]
Online cemeteries – Dutch alternatives to Find a Grave
20 September 2013 by 23 Comments
Not many cemeteries in the Netherlands can be found on international websites like Find a Grave or Billion Graves. There is no Dutch equivalent for these sites, but there are several websites that provide photos of graves. … [Read more...]
Dutch term: inventaris
16 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
An inventaris is an inventory. In a genealogical context, it can have two different meanings: A finding aid or catalog of a collection, for example the inventaris of the archive of the Dutch East India Company. A call number of a file within a catalog is called an inventarisnummer (inv.nr.). An inventory of an estate of a person, usually a deceased person. … [Read more...]
My great-grandparents’ incestuous marriage
13 September 2013 by 5 Comments
When my great-grandparents Hendrik Woordes and Janna Geertruid Droppers wanted to get married in 1910, they were facing a problem. The law did not allow them to marry, since his first wife Hendrika Willemina Droppers had been the sister of Janna Geertruid. Hendrika Willemina had died in childbirth the year before, leaving Hendrik with a motherless infant. When he found her youngest sister willing to marry him and take care of the child, the only way to do that was to apply for a Royal … [Read more...]
Dutch term: patroniem
9 September 2013 by Leave a Comment
A patroniem is the Dutch word for 'patronymic,' a name derived from the father's name. Examples are Jansen (son of Jan), Marijnissen (son of Marijn or Marinus) or Damen (son of Daam or Adam). In some provinces where patronymics were common, like Friesland and Noord-Brabant, you may encounter the word patroniem in search engines. If this is the case, be sure to use try that field, because you will not get any results by searching for a patroniem in the achternaam (surname) field. See the … [Read more...]
Dutch term: nummerwisselaar
2 September 2013 by 2 Comments
A nummerwisselaar or number changer was a person that was hired as a replacement for military service. Often, this was somebody who signed up in the same year, but whose number did not come up. They literally "exchanged numbers" so one man served instead of the other. In most cases, a contract between the (father of the) draftee and his substitute was drawn up before a public notary. It stipulated the terms, often involving a sum of money to be paid immediately and another sum after the … [Read more...]
Dutch term: tussenvoegsel
26 August 2013 by 2 Comments
A tussenvoegsel (literally: something put in between) is a prefix of a surname. Common prefixes are De (the) or Van den (from the). Tussenvoegsels are ignored when determining the alphabetical order, so De Vries can be found under the V. See the article about prefixes in surnames for more information. … [Read more...]
