Archive for the ‘Sources Revealed’ Category
Finding Dutch Holocaust Victims
Friday, February 4th, 2011
The Memorial Monument at camp Westerbork
Photograph Wikimedia Commons
Every year on January 27, the victims of the Holocaust are remembered worldwide. The memorial day was established by the United Nations in 2005 to honor all those that lost their lives in this horrible episode of our history.
The Holocaust is especially painful to the Dutch since given their very well kept civil records that included faith specifics and collaboration of the Dutch NSB party (Nationaal Socialistische Beweging, meaning National Socialist Movement), an astonishing over 100,000 Jewish people were deported easily and murdered in concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Sobibor. As a comparison, in Germany –the heart of the fascist movement and a country about nine times bigger than the Netherlands– about 160,000 Jews shared the same horrible fate.
Even today, it is a subject not easily spoken off. Many Dutch feel ashamed they let it happen. However, not all Dutch stood by and watched. There were brave resistance people that risked being executed themselves by hiding Jewish people on their attics, in their cellars and the like.
For those of you that are researching Jewish relatives that lived during WW II, sadly, the best place to start is the Digital Jewish Memorial Monument, which can be found (in English) at: www.communityjoodsmonument.nl. Here you can find lots of details about Dutch Jews that were murdered during the holocaust. A real treasure, though a dark one, for Jewish people seeking Dutch ancestors from the Holocaust period.
The Toko In Semarang
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
A Toko in Semarang
Photograph Wikimedia Commons
When researching my own tree I stumbled upon an ancestor named Henri Francois Grivel that seemed to have disappeared into thin air after his birth. I could not find any records on him except for his birth certificate. I had the rest of his family complete. I knew the fate of his parents and his siblings. But nothing on him, and that was nagging me…
Then, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Dutch Library) came to the rescue. They had only just completed scanning and indexing over a million newspaper pages starting in 1640, and put it all online! When I searched for “Grivel” literally dozens of hits turned up for an Indonesian newspaper from the mid 1800s. Intrigued, I clicked on the hits and to my amazement, they were newspaper ads, placed by my ancestor Henri to promote his shop in Semarang.
He sold furniture, books, baby clothing, rain boots, photo cameras, tools, candles and a myriad of other things a Dutch colonist would need to deal with life in the tropics. Suddenly Henri had come to life…
Ever since, I have frequently used the site of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek to put real-life flesh on the bones of my clients’ family trees. Sometimes it doesn’t yields anything, but other times, it provides fascinating clues to people’s daily life.
Go ahead and have a go at it yourself. You can feed any Dutch texts you find to Google Translate to get a grasp of what it says.
The Secret Message of Baptism Witnesses
Thursday, September 16th, 2010
The Christening by Jan Steen
Photograph Wikimedia Commons
When looking at a baptism record we tend to look for the primary data like date and place of baptism and birth, names of the parents and name of the child. Witnesses are often ignored, which is a shame because they can provide a beautiful insight into the kinship and friendships.
Witnesses aren’t just people that happened to be there when the child was baptized; they are usually very close relatives or dear friends. I most cases, the witnesses are the grandparents. This can be vital information to push your tree back in time.
You can even hypothesize about the relationship of the witness to the child using naming patterns. Usually, the first boy is named after the paternal grandfather, and the second boy after the maternal grandfather. All subsequent boys are named after the father’s brothers. The first girl is usually named after the maternal grandmother, the second girl after the paternal grandmother, and all following daughters after the mother’s sisters.
Let’s have a look at some examples to see this in action:
Gerrit and Marie de Vries have their first son Klaas baptized. The witnesses are Klaas de Vries and Jelke Oldeman. Following the naming patterns, these are probably the paternal grandparents.
Two years later the same couple have their first daughter Antje baptized. The witnesses are Henk van Buuren and Antje Hendriks. These are probably the maternal grandparents.
Several years later, a third girl is baptized Petronella. The witnesses are Arie Olthof and Petronella van Buuren. These are probably a maternal aunt and her husband.
So, the next time you have a look at a baptism record, have a close look at the witnesses as well. They can tell you a lot about older generations.
Want to know more about dealing with Dutch births and baptisms?
Read our article: Dutch Birth Records Basics.
Download our free e-book: Dutch Birth Records And Rituals.
