Grave of Gerrit Jan Droppers (1845-1925)
The term wijlen means ‘the late,’ or ‘deceased.’ You will often encounter the term in marriage records or death records, where one or both parents are deceased. The record might say “zoon van wijlen…” [son of the late…] or “dochter van wijlen…” [daughter of the late…].
Sometimes, the word is abbreviated to ‘w’ and you will see svw or zvw [soon/zoon van wijlen: son of the late] or dvw [dochter van wijlen: daughter of the late]. These abbreviations are most commonly found in church records.
About Yvette Hoitink
