Archive for January, 2010
Genlias Quick Start Guide
Monday, January 18th, 2010
Image www.genlias.nl
The basics you absolutely should know about the largest digitalization project for genealogical resources ever started in the Netherlands.
What Is Genlias?
www.genlias.nl is the best place to start your research for Dutch ancestors. It is the largest, free online index for Dutch birth, marriage, and death records from the period 1811–1922. The best thing about it is that you can search for people without entering a place or a date.
The project started in 1998 when several provincial archives decided to create an online database of genealogical records. The project is run entirely by volunteers. So far 12 million records have been added to the database containing information about over a 50 million people.
Protected: The Dutch Outback. Land Of The Independent: The Province Of Groningen
Friday, January 15th, 2010Forgotten Crafts: Peat Diggers
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Photograph Beroep in Beeld
Could you imagine having a job that required you standing in a wobbly boat bending over to dig out heavy mud out of the water for sixteen hours a day, six days a week and sleeping in a damp, dirty tent for six weeks a year?
Would you do that to earn a salary that could barely feed your family? Peat diggers did!
Digging For Fuel
If your ancestors are from the province of Groningen or Drenthe, it is not unlikely that you will find that one of them was working in the peat industry. Both provinces had large reserves of peat.
So, what is peat anyway and why would people go through the trouble of digging it up: hard, backbreaking work?
Peat is formed when dead plant material –especially from mosses– accumulates over time. When compressed and dried, it becomes turf, which makes excellent fuel. It burns slow and heats well without much smoke. Peat is also used as potting soil and as a raw material for producing activated coal, a key ingredient for certain medical and chemical industries.
There are two types of peateries: bog and fen. Fen is an alkaline or neutral soil type made of a moss called sphagnum. It can be easily exploited when drained: the dried peat can then simply be dug out with a spade. Bog is an acidic soil type that is much harder to exploit. Since it cannot be drained as easily as fen, the peat must be dug out from underneath the water with a special spade. Diggers could only do so by standing in the water or in a boat.
