Postcard from Alphen

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: A postcard from Alphen.

A water tower in Alphen aan den Rijn (or Alfen, as the label on the postcard states). This 26.5 meter (87 feet) tall water tower was built in 1902, and demolished again in 1958. A second water tower was built in 1911.

I could not decipher the date on the postmark, but the card is probably sent between 1905 and 1911.

Parental marriage consent

Until only a few decades ago, spouses under thirty needed parental consent for their marriage.

Normally, the parents were present at the wedding and signed the wedding certificate to express their consent. The wedding certificate may contain phrases like alhier aanwezig en consenterende (here present and consenting), or [zij] hebben ons verklaard in dit huwelijk toe te stemmen ([they] declared to give permission for this marriage).

If one of the parents was dead, this will be stated in the marriage certificate, and only the other parent had to consent. The marriage supplements will contain an extract of the death record of the deceased parent. If both parents were dead, the grandparents had to consent. If they, too, were dead, the marriage supplements should have more information on both the parents' and grandparents' deaths (occasionally the information was also copied into the marriage certificate). In earlier marriage acts, though, you are more likely to find a statement that the grandparents have been dead for a long time, and that nobody knew anymore where and when they died. In this case, the spouse did not need parental consent.

This image is a part of the marriage certificate of Jacobus Frederikus Winter and Johanna Helena Maria Hoogenbosch. It states the mother of the bride was deceased, and the father of the bride was not present. To give his permission, he had to visit a notary who would then create an act of permission. The marriage record states toestemmende bij authentieke akte, consenting by authentic (notarial) act. This act should be included with the marriage supplements.

If the parents of one of the spouses did not consent, it was possible to request the county court to consent on their behalf. This happened to Jacobus Frederikus Winter, in the marriage certificate above. He had to go to the county court, and the court granted consent on behalf of his parents (in theory the court could also refuse consent, but I am not aware of any case where that happened). The marriage record states that consent is obtained by court intervention (the above marriage act contains the statement voor wier toestemmingen de tusschenkomst van den kantonrechter is ingeroepen, for whose consent the intervention of the county court is invoked). The marriage supplements should have an extract of the court decision.

Postcard from Nijmegen

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: A postcard from Nijmegen.

I'm not sure (yet) what to make of this card. The label "Nijmegen Stationsplein" suggests the building on the left is the Nijmegen station, but it does not look like other images of the station that I have found. The stoomtram building is probably the terminal of the steam tram, which was indeed used in Nijmegen at the time.

The postcard was sent in 1905.

Genealogie Online

The website

Genealogie Online is Dutch a website where users can upload their own family tree, similar to e.g. Rootsweb. Recently I received an e-mail from Bob Coret, the man behind Genealogie Online, that the website is now also available in English. A good reason to have a look at what the site offers.

What do they have?

Users upload their data, others can browse it. In the words of Coret:

"The average genealogist collects large amounts of information about his ancestors. The step to publishing this collection of heritage data and/ or collection of mortuary cards on paper or the Internet is perhaps (still) a bridge too far. To share this valuable data, I (Bob Coret) offer a helping hand. You too can have your genealogical data (GEDCOM) published by me on this site In four simple steps. The data is and remains yours, the data is therefore published with a named source."

The site is aimed at Dutch users. Indeed, for years the website was only available in Dutch. You can use it to find what Dutch users have found about their ancestors, and you can contact the uploaders - possibly Dutch cousins who researched your Dutch roots!

Is there an English interface?

Yes: The section of the website where the data is presented is available in English (and German). The section of the website where you can contribute your own data is only available in Dutch, though, probably because Coret wants the focus of the site to be on Dutch ancestors.

How do I use it?

Enter a name in the search box on the top right, and click Search for .... You get a list of uploaded family trees that contain that name, just click the one you are interested in.

On the image below, I searched for the surname Bansema:

The Dutch text at the bottom states that one person has registered an interest in the surname Bansema. The link to contact him leads to another website (also by Bob Coret) that is currently only available in Dutch.

Two users have uploaded a family tree containing Albert Bansema (1826-1873), though apparently the Van Puffelen family tree does not have a death date. Clicking on the name Albert Bansema leads to an informative page with a family tree, a timeline, and lots of background information about the time Albert lived in (much of that background info is in Dutch, though).

Click on the title, Genealogie Kloos in this case, to find (and contact) the owner of the data.

How much does it cost?

The site is free to use, but donations are welcome.

Conclusion

If you have 19th or 20th century Dutch roots, you will find Genealogie Online a useful site, and you will almost certainly discover someone related to you.

Dutch archive news April-May 2010

• Genlias added birth and death records from the Netherlands Antilles (birth records from Aruba, death records from Saba), marriage records from Drenthe (Anloo), birth records from Flevoland (Urk), and death records from Noord-Brabant (a major update).

• The National Library of the Netherlands is digitizing Dutch newspapers from 1618 to the late 20th century (as I announced before). The first batch of one million pages is available now, the other seven million pages will be added over the next 18 months. The newspapers are in Dutch, of course, and so is the search page.
• The National Library, together with the National Archive of Suriname, will digitize newspapers from Suriname from 1774-1995. This includes papers from the collections of the National Archive of Suriname and papers from the collections of the National Library of the Netherlands.
• More newspapers: Tresoar announced several digitized regional newspapers from the northern part of the country (Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe) are now available on a new website. In the future they will add more (northern) newspapers.
• The Zeeland archive has a new website. There is no English interface, only an English summary.
• The Overijssel archive opened a flickr account. Currently there is only an album about football (soccer) in Zwolle, hopefully other albums will follow soon.
• The Utrecht archive opened a new website section about Utrecht in WWII, but only in Dutch.
• The Dutch National Archive, which is also the provincial archive of Zuid-Holland, has copies of the church books of the province Zuid-Holland (the originals are scattered throughout the province). Over the next few months these copies will be digitized and from November they should be available on the website of the National Archive. In the meantime these copies cannot be consulted by archive visitors. (link)

Postcard from Haarlem

Postcard from Holland is a regular feature on this blog. On Wednesdays I post a card from my collection of vintage postcards. Today: A postcard from Haarlem.

This building at the Wagenweg in Haarlem is called Eindenhout, but locally it is known as the Huis met de beelden (House with the statues). The house was built in 1793. In 2003 it was heavily damaged by fire.

The card was sent on 15 January 1909.