Postcard from Arnhem

Rosendael castle, Arnhem. Postcard sent in 1903. Only the donjon remains from the original late-medieval castle, the house in front dates from the 18th century. The park was redesigned in the 19th century.

The castle and park were heavily damaged in the second world war and neglected afterwards. It was restored in the 1980s, and house and park are now open to the public.

Look here or here to compare the postcard with the current situation.

Postcard from Haarlem

This postcard from Haarlem also featured in the Church Sunday series on my Roots blog. The card, sent in 1931, shows us the Grote Markt, the former market square, with the St. Bavo Church (famous for its organ). On the left is the statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster, who many Dutch consider to be the real inventor of the printing press, an invention generally ascribed to Gutenberg.

If you compare the photo on the card with the current situation you will notice that not much has changed. Only the cars (extreme left) and the shop signs (behind the cars) look different now.

Image attribution: Photo of the Grote Markt, from Wikipedia. Public domain, unknown photographer.

Newsletter will be sent out soon!

The July issue of the newsletter is almost ready for sending. Subscribers can expect a copy in their mailbox later this week. If you are not a subscriber yet, there is still time to do so.

Of course we will dwell on Henry Hudson, English captain of the Dutch ship Halve Maen. Four hundred years ago he had just failed to find a route to the East Indies through the northern passage, and he was about to fail to find a passage through the Americas. He may have failed to find what he was looking for, but his discoveries did sow the seeds for the New Netherland colony and had far-reaching consequences.

The newsletter will also make a tour of the twelve Dutch provinces and highlight the main online resources of each province.

All this and more in the upcoming edition of the Trace your Dutch roots newsletter. Stay tuned!

Online genealogy in Friesland

• The main resource for genealogy in Friesland is Tresoar, the website of the Frisian Historical and Literary Centre. I reviewed this website last year.
• The new website AlleFriezen (All Frisians) aims to show "information from public records of the Registry Offices (since 1811) [and] to enable the viewing of the original certificates, belonging to that information". I.o.w., they will eventually have scans of all BMD acts of the civil register.
• The image database Fries Fotoarchief (Frisian photo archive), maintained by Tresoar, has now 54,219 images. Unfortunately, it is only available in Dutch and Frisian. There are local image databases for Leeuwarden and other towns.
• Tresoar is present on Flickr and YouTube. The Leeuwarden city archive Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden is present on YouTube.
• For indexes of cemeteries and photos of tombstones visit Graftombe (Tomb) or Online Begraafplaatsen (Online Cemeteries).
• Discuss your Friesland roots at the Yahoo mailing list Friesland-genealogy or the Ancestry message board Friesland.

For more information see Genealogy in Friesland.

Postcard from Maastricht

This postcard, sent from Maastricht to Hillegom in 1903, shows a canal in Maastricht. This is probably the canal from Maastricht to Luik (Liège) in Belgium, opened in 1850 and filled up again in 1963-1964.

Reader's question: Roelfsema

Karin asked me:

How is it possible to find a Roelf Roelfsema who became the father of Gritje Cornelia born 8/3 1889?

Gritje Cornelia Roelfsema was born 8/3 1889 in Gravenhage as the daughter of Roelf Roelfsema and Christina Mathis. According to the family legend they were of Frisian descent.

Only a few acts from Den Haag (also known as 's-Gravenhage, or in English The Hague) are in Genlias, but The Hague does have its own database. I found the birth act of Grietje Cornelia Roelfsema in this database: Act 1080, 9 March 1889. Summary: Grietje Cornelia was born on 8 March at 3:30 pm. Parents are Roelf Roelfsema, 36, carpenter, and his wife Christina Frederika Matthijs, without occupation, both living in The Hague.

Note that 8/3 1889 means 8 March, not 3 August, 1889!

Roelf and Christina Frederika married in The Hague (marriage act 474, 1 June 1887): Roelf Roelfsema, 34, carpenter, born in Norg, living in The Hague, son of Kornelis Roelfsema (deceased) and Grietje Jans (without occupation, living in The Hague), married Christina Frederika Matthijs, 21, without occupation, born and living in The Hague, daughter of Johannes Frederik Matthijs (bookbinder, living in The Hague, present at the wedding) and Frederika Kaemmerer (deceased).

Note that Christina Frederika's father had to give permission for the wedding (as she was not yet 30), so the marriage act states he was present and consented. Roelf did not need parental permission (he was over 30), so whether his mother was present at the wedding is not listed in the marriage act.

In 1902 an interesting note was written in the margin of the wedding act: The marriage ended by divorce. The court declared the divorce on 17 December 1901, and it was registered in the margin of the marriage act on 17 February 1902.

You can continue the Roelfsema line on Genlias. As far as I can see, the Roelfsema's lived in Delfzijl (province Groningen) in the early 19th century. I don't see a connection with Friesland (yet).

Do you also have a question about Dutch genealogy that you want me to discuss? Leave your question in the comments below this post, or use the contact form.

Postcard from Scheveningen

Postcard of Scheveningen beach and the pier, sent in 1909.

Scheveningen was originally a small fishing village just outside Den Haag (The Hague). In the late 19th century it became a popular beach resort.

The pier on the postcard burned down in 1943. The current pier was built between 1959 and 1961.

Note the nice beach chairs on this postcard, and of course the (very formal) beach fashion of the time: Scheveningen was the resort of high society (a popular Dutch singer sang in the early 1930s: Er is geen zee zo distingué, Als de Scheveningse zee, Daar baadt alleen de haute volée. There is no sea as distingué as the sea at Scheveningen, only the haute volée (high society) bathe there).

Follow the Schaghen letter on Twitter

In 1626, Dutch settlers bought the island Manhattan for goods worth 60 guilders. We know that from a letter from Pieter Schaghen. This letter, the Schaghenbrief (Schaghen letter) will soon fly to New York for an exhibition.

The Schaghenbrief now has its own Twitter page, where you can follow its trip from an exhibition in Amsterdam, via its home in the National Archive in The Hague, to New York.

Image: Brief over de aankoop van Manhattan, 1626, Nationaal Archief (Letter about the sale of Manhattan, 1626, Dutch National Archive).

Reader's question: Origin of the Hartel surname

A reader of Trace your Dutch roots asked me about the origin of his surname, Hartel.

Hartel is an uncommon name, I have never encountered it before. There are only 67 hits in Genlias, without a clear geographic concentration.

The best place to find information about a surname is the Family name database of the Meertens Institute. About Hartel they tell it's a name derived from an address or toponym. In other words, the Hartel family originates from a place called Hartel (or something similar). Unfortunately, Meertens does not tell where or what that place was.

From the 56 Hartels in the 1947 census, 22 came from Amsterdam and another 17 from the rest of the province Noord-Holland. Similar names like Härtel (4 out of 7) and Hertel (33 out of 58) show a similar concentration in Amsterdam. So my next step was the Amsterdam registers.

The old marriage registers - which usually list place of origin of both spouses - are not online yet, but the Amsterdam baptisms are. There is only one Hartel baptism: Johanna Maria Christina Fredrica, daughter of Johan Gerrit Hartel, was baptized in 1783. One of the witnesses was Diedrik Philip Hartel. She was baptized by Wilhelm August Klepperbein, a German minister. This suggests the Hartel family may come from Germany. There are also a few hits for Hertel, most of them seem to have a German connection too.

I have no proof yet (for that I have to visit the Amsterdam city archive), but I expect the Dutch Hartel family originates in Germany. Just to be sure I checked the online German phone book and I found 687 hits for Hartel, 3744 for Hertel, and 2857 for Härtel.

So my hypothesis is that the Dutch Hartel family actually came from Germany. What Mr. Hartel needs to do now is confirm that he descends from the Amsterdam Hartel family, and then check the pre-1811 Amsterdam marriage books (this can be done in his local FHC) to confirm they came from Germany.

Do you also have a question about Dutch genealogy that you want me to discuss? Leave your question in the comments below this post, or use the contact form.

Dutch archive news June 2009

• Several archives announced limited opening hours during the summer.
• The Royal Dutch Library completed its Short-Title Catalogue (STCN), a complete biography of Dutch books printed between 1540 and 1800. The project took 15 years to complete. You can consult the database here.
• Genlias added birth records from Groningen.
• The Flevoland archive announced a new exhibition and website: Vergane schepen (Lost ships). The area that is now the province Flevoland was once the Zuiderzee, a small inland sea. 435 shipwrecks were found during the creation of the polders in the Zuiderzee. The website Vergane schepen shows a selection on a map, with images of and information about the wreck (in Dutch).

Image: de ventjager, an 18th century fish transporting ship, part of the Vergane schepen exhibition. Source: Press release of Nieuw land erfgoed, the Flevoland archive and heritage centre.

Postcard from Holland

Many bloggers post a Wordless Wednesday article on Wednesday: An image that is strong enough to speak for itself so that it does not need any words (except maybe an attribution and a short caption). Wordless articles are not so suitable for genealogy blogs: Photos nearly always need some background information (at the very least, when and where the photo was taken). Geneabloggers solved that either by using more words than one would expect on a wordless article or by posting a new article the next day with background information.

I will start a new Wednesday image series, Postcards from Holland. Each Wednesday I will post a vintage card from my collection to Trace your Dutch roots. Most of the time these won't be Wordless Wednesdays articles - I will usually provide some background information.

We will start next week, on the beach in Scheveningen. Stay tuned!