Archive for February, 2010
Why the Pennsylvania Dutch are actually German
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Photograph Wikimedia Commons
If you research your Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors, you may well find very little about them in the Dutch archives. This is because most of them are actually German. Then why on earth, you may wonder, are they called Dutch?
Today Germany and the Netherlands are two separate countries lying next to each other. We call the people from the Netherlands and their language Dutch, and their neighbors and their language German. However, it wasn’t always like that.
Children Of The German Empire
In the 17th century when the first Dutch set out to the Americas, the Netherlands as such did not exist; it was a Republic of seven independent provinces (Holland being one of them and the most powerful). Up until the 16th century, these provinces had been part of the German Empire.
Not surprisingly, the people of the Republic used a dialect that was derived from a Germanic language known as Low Saxon or Low German. Many German dialects are derived from it as well. The speakers of this language (and all the dialectical variants of it) referred to it as Thuidisk or Duidisk, meaning language of the people.
From Duidisk To Dutch
Duidisk was pronounced Diets in the Holland area and Deutsch in what is now Germany. When people from the Netherlands and Germany emigrated to America between 1600 and 1800, they both referred to their language as something that sounded to the English as Dutch. That is why in this period both people from Germany and the Netherlands were referred to as Dutch. Probably to the English Dutch and Germans were all the same, after all the Dutch Republic was still very young and it’s German roots were obvious.
It is only later that a specific distinction between Germans and Dutch was made. Nowadays do not dare to call a Dutch person German, for the Dutch have developed a very specific culture of their own and do not at all feel related to Germany anymore.
Give Birth Dates Context With Historic Dutch Newspapers
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Photograph Wikimedia Commons
Although finding a date of birth can be exiting in itself for the genealogist, it is in the end just that: a date. Wouldn’t be great to know what was happening on the day your great grandmother was born? What was the weather like, what historic events took place, what did famous people do that day… The great thing is that you actually can!
The Leeuwarder Courant has the biggest database of historical newspapers of the Netherlands. Although it is a Frisian newspaper, it also covers the national news, of course. It dates back as far as 1752 and it is all available for free online. You can simply choose a date and flip through the newspaper of that day or you can search for specific strings.
Of course it is all in Dutch but that need not be an obstacle. You can select the text (when print version is selected) and then copy the text into Google translate for example. Although the translation is far from perfect it usually lets you get a grasp of what the article is about.
You can print out a copy yourself or you can order an A3 format copy of the first page for a certain date. Since the interface is in Dutch, here are some tips on how to use the database:
1. Go to www.archiefleeuwardercourant.nl
2. You can now do one of three things:
1. Enter a date and press “toon”. You will get access to the complete newspaper of that date.
2. Enter a keyword and press “zoek”. You will get a result page with all the articles that match your query if any.
3. Order a copy of a front page by pressing “klik hier”. To order a copy of the original front page click on the left option. To order a front page you can adapt with your own picture and text for fun choose the right option. The rest of the process is pretty obvious. You can pay with credit card.
3. For more advanced search options choose the yellow “zoeken” button in the upper menu and then the grey “gericht zoeken” button below it once the page has reloaded.
The Leeuwarder Courant is the oldest newspaper online but certainly not the only one. Have a look at kranten-historisch.startpagina.nl for more Dutch historic newspapers online. The site orders the available newspapers conveniently by province. If you can find one from the region your ancestors came from you could even find their birth announcement!
Forgotten Crafts: Wet Nurses
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Photograph Wikimedia Commons
A Min, Minnemoeder or Zoogster is a wet nurse, a woman who breastfeeds somebody else’s child. Today nobody in the western world would consider hiring someone to breastfeed their baby: either they do the breastfeeding themselves or they give the baby a bottle. So why did our ancestors use wet nurses?
Status
The first group of people that outsourced the feeding of their children (and their whole education for that matter) was the nobility. Noble women considered feeding and raising children as way below their position. Therefore, they would hire a wet nurse to do the task for them. Finding a good wet nurse however, was no easy task. The belief was that the wet nurse would transmit her health and character to the infant through the milk. Therefore, she had to be well fed, of strong composition, healthy and of honest and quiet character. She also had to be willing to move in with the noble household. When she did, she usually took her own children with her and actually took care of the noble child as one of her own.
