Online genealogy in Limburg

• There is no online provincial database for Limburg, but Genlias has many BMD records from Limburg.
• For images of the past visit the Beeldbank (image database) of the Limburg provincial archive.
• The state mines were once the economic heart of Limburg. Visit the Fotoarchief De Staatsmijnen (photo archive of the state mines).
• There are, of course, also local image sites, e.g. for Landgraaf, Roermond, or Sittard and Geleen.
• For indexes of cemeteries and photos of tombstones visit Graftombe (Tomb).
• Discuss your Limburg roots at the Ancestry message board Limburg or the Yahoo mailing list Genealogy in Limburg.

For more information see Genealogy in Limburg.

Postcard from Rotterdam

The city hall in downtown Rotterdam, on a postcard sent on 16 July 1927. This area was largely destroyed thirteen years later, during the bombardment of Rotterdam (14 May 1940, see this photo for a view after the debris was cleared). Surprisingly, both the 1914 city hall and the church in the background survived, so the view today still looks pretty much the same (except for the traffic and the clothing of the people on the foreground, of course).

Postcard from Groesbeek

A postcard from Groesbeek, sent in 1928. Groesbeek was (and to some extent still is) a rural village in the province Gelderland, just southeast of the city Nijmegen and on walking distance from the German border (see map). The area saw fierce fighting during Operation Market Garden, destroying much of the village, but the photo on this card was taken long before that.

Online genealogy in Zeeland

• The main resource for genealogy in Zeeland is Zeeuwen Gezocht, the database of the Zeeland provincial archive. I reviewed this website last year.
• There are regional and local databases for Schouwen-Duiveland and Vlissingen.
• Genealogie Zeeland is a portal site for Zeeland genealogy. Unfortunately it is only available in Dutch.
• There are two provincial image databases: Beeldbank Zeeland (Image database Zeeland), maintained by the provincial libraries, and Zeeland in beeld (Zeeland in pictures), by the provincial archive.
• There are also many regional and local image sites, e.g. Schouwen-Duiveland, Vlissingen, or Goes.
• For indexes of cemeteries and photos of tombstones visit Graftombe (Tomb). The website Online Begraafplaatsen (Online Cemeteries) has pages for the regions Schouwen-Duiveland, Tholen, and Walcheren.
• You can discuss your Zeeland roots at the Ancestry message board Zeeland or at the Yahoo mailing list for Zeeland genealogy list.

For more information see Genealogy in Zeeland.

Postcard from Den Haag

The Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights) in Den Haag (a.k.a. The Hague or 's-Gravenhage) was built in the middle ages as a palace for the counts of Holland, and is now used for the opening of the parliamentary year and official receptions by the Queen, the government, and parliament. It is an icon of Dutch democracy, and a must-see for visitors of Den Haag.

This venerable hall has not always been so: During the 18th and 19th century it was used for a lot of less-than-venerable purposes, including (from 1726 to 1855) the draw for the national lottery (which, incidentally, still exists). The caption of this postcard is Loterijzaal, Lottery Hall. Apparently it was still known as such when this card was printed.

The card never ran and has no date marks, but I guess it was printed at the beginning of the 20th century.

News from the Dutch archives, August 2009

• We all know by now that in 1609 Hudson stumbled upon Manhattan and claimed it for the Dutch Republic (which eventually led to the foundation of New Netherland and its capital New Amsterdam). But did you also know that in the same year the Japanese Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu signed a trading pass, giving the Dutch East Indies Company permission to trade with Japan? For well over 200 years (from 1639 to 1858), The Netherlands was the only country in the world that was allowed to trade with Japan. The Dutch National Library and the National Archive opened an exhibition, From here to Tokyo - 400 years of trade with Japan, to celebrate, well, 400 years of trade with Japan. One of the documents on display is the famous trading pass (see image).
• Het Geheugen van Nederland (Memory of The Netherlands), in cooperation with the national libraries of The Netherlands and Japan, opened a new collection The Netherlands – Japan to commemorate 400 years of trade with Japan.
• A surprising addition to Genlias: Baptisms (1639-1800) and marriages (1639-1801) from the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam and New York.
• The Dutch National Archive evaluated its flickr pilot and declared it a success (a million page views, 2000 comments, 6800 tags). The flickr activities are promoted from "pilot" to "regular activity".
• The National Archive also announced the website Mapit1418, a collection of photos from the great war, often taken on an unknown location. The public is asked to geo-tag the photos (i.e. put them on a map) and add their own (modern) photos of the same location. Technical information: mapit1418 is a mashup of flickr's open API and OpenStreetMap (OSM). The website is part of the Beelden voor de Toekomst (Images for the Future) project.
• The Gelderland Archive is now on Twitter.

Image: Trading pass. Coll. Nationaal archief (Dutch National Archive). On display at the exhibition From here to Tokyo - 400 years of trade with Japan.

Postcard from Amsterdam

This postcard was sent from Amsterdam in November 1904. It shows the Overtoom, a street near the Vondelpark, in Amsterdam (see how Overtoom looks now in streetview).

Have a look at the people on the card, and their different clothing styles.

The real "star" on this card is of course the beautiful tram. Trams were a major mode of transport at the time, not only in the city but also to connect different towns. The tram is still important for Amterdam and several other major cities, but outside the main cities the tram has disappeared completely.

The tram on the card is an electric tram, getting electricity from the wires overhead (the trams in use today still work the same way). The electric tram was introduced in Amsterdam in 1900, so it was still quite new when this card was sent in 1904 - possibly the recipients of this card never saw one. Other trams in use at the time include steam trams and horse-drawn trams.