52W Mark II – Week 17: DNA

For this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge theme, we were simply provided three letters, DNA. That could stand for anything!

Of course, the idea is probably to write about genetic genealogy. Thankfully, we are not beholden to what the weekly theme should be. Suffice to say, if we were, this would be an incredibly short post. I have precious little to say about deoxyribonucleic acid; I have far more I can say about the Dutch National Archives.

Of course, the institution is not called the Dutch National Archives. In Dutch, the institution is simply “Nationaal Archief“. You don’t need to be a polyglot to figure out that’s “National Archive”.

If you do Dutch genealogy, you’re not getting information from churches, courthouses, or libraries. The archives are where you want to be. The Netherlands adopted a system of civil registration in 1811. At that time, it had all the churches turn over their baptism, marriage, and burial records. Since then, births, marriages, and deaths have been recorded at the municipal level. After a period of time, these records are turned over to the civil or provincial archives. As well, other governmental institutions, as well as the courts, are required to turn their records over to the archives after a requisite period of time.

The Dutch archives are amazingly accessible over the internet. A lot of resources have been put into digitizing archival holdings and putting them online. Many of the provincial and municipal archives provide this material through their own websites, many of which have an English interface. However, they all contribute to a central online source, WieWasWie, which has both a Dutch and English interface. There’s also OpenArchives. It’s a portal and aggregator, that uses openly available information, although it is privately backed.

The Nationaal Archief, located in Anna van Buerenplein (Anna van Bueren Square) The Hague.

While so much is available over the internet, the old adage “not everything is online” still applies. Of course, with an entire ocean and and a whole continent separating me from the Netherlands, I don’t have the opportunity to visit in person. Thus, I’ve been to the Nationaal Archief exactly once, but as part of an unplanned visit shortly before closing just to get a lay of the land.

My last trip to the Netherlands was spurred by the fact my parents were taking a cruise out of Amsterdam. They went early to spend time with family. I’ve always wanted to visit the Netherlands with my father, so I took advantage of the opportunity.

After they left for their cruise, I had a couple days on my own. I decided that I wanted to go to The Hague, to do exactly two things. First and foremost, I had to see my favourite painting by my favourite artist: Girl With a Pear Earring by Johannes Vermeer. It’s part of the holdings of Mauritshuis, a museum adjacent to the Dutch parliament buildings in The Hague. The second was to visit a small polder in Leidschendam, on the outskirts of The Hague, which is either the source of my surname, or was named after my family.

One of two reasons I went to The Hague.

Given the limited time and my singular goal, I did not make any plans to visit the Nationaal Archief. If I was going to spend any time during my trip in an archive, that would probably not be the one. The records I really need are to be found in the Noord-Hollands Archief in Haarlem (provincial) or Alkmaar Archief (regional). However, the Nationaal Archief also houses the archives for the province of Zuid-Holland, so a visit there would not be fruitless. Furthermore, the Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie (since renamed CBG Centrum voor Familiegeschiedenis – Centre for Family History) is located within the same building as the Nationaal Archief.

However, if I had done even a minimal amount of research, I would have discovered that the Nationaal Archief is located immediately beside The Hague’s main central train station. My hotel was a five minute walk away.

On my last day in The Hague, I found myself walking by the Nationaal Archief, and noticed it was still open. I couldn’t resist popping in, if only to take a peek. The place was spacious and pleasant. There was an archivist on duty who was very welcoming. When I explained that I wasn’t there to do any actual research and that I only wanted to take a look, she gave me a bit of a tour.

Among the items the archivist showed me was an original of the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce between the States General of the United Netherlands and the United States of America. The Netherlands was the second country in the world, after France, to formally recognize the independent United States. This treaty formed the foundation of their formal diplomatic relations.

At the time this treaty was signed, the Netherlands was not a unitary state; rather, it was more of a confederation of largely autonomous states. Thus, there are eight Dutch signatories. The single American signatory was John Adams, who later became the second President of the United States.

I also saw this map of central Noord Holland, which shows many of the towns and villages where many of my ancestors lived. It is also where many of my closest Dutch relatives live. At the top, near the middle, is Waarland, where my father was born.

If I should ever return to The Hague with lots of time for myself, I definitely need to plan a return trip to the Nationaal Archief.

The Nationaal Archief is directly across from the University of Leiden’s campus in The Hague. “Een leven zonder boeken is onleefbaar” – “A life without books is unlivable”

52W Mark II – Week 16: Should Be A Movie

My grandfather was in a movie – sort of.

Every week, participants in Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks are invited to post on the hebdomadal theme at her Facebook group, Generations Cafe. In my post there for last week, I noted that it’s been quite the struggle participating in the challenge this year. For every week’s theme this year, it felt like I had already written about the current topic – sometimes more than once. It’s getting hard – challenging even! – to think of something new that fit, which I also found interesting enough to me to write about.

This week, I’m not going to fight it, I’m just going to go along with it. So you’re not experiencing deja vu when reading about my grandfather, Leo Burgess, and his brush with Hollywood. 

My grandfather worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway for over 30 years, first as a brakeman and later as a conductor. During his time with the CPR, he worked on the train crews for movies like Silver Streak and Superman: The Movie.

My grandfather, Leo Burgess, is the man wearing a cap standing on the right side of the photo.

Working on Superman was one of the highlights of my grandfather’s life. He was always proud to talk about meeting one of his favourite actors during filming, Glenn Ford.

I assume photo referred to in the letter is the same photo that appeared in the CP Rail News, above.

During the eulogy at my grandfather’s memorial service, one of his friends told an anecdote that suggests my grandfather felt that he had gotten familiar with the cast and crew. The scene took six days to shoot. Apparently during a break in filming, Ford was talking to a group of railway workers when my grandfather sauntering up, put his arm around the actor, and said, “How’s it going, Glenn?”

My grandfather was working in the engine during the filming of this scene.

Today my parents live about a 30 minute drive from where this was filmed. The tracks are gone, but the memories live on.

52W Mark II – Week 15: Solitude

I have really struggled with this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge theme, “Solitude”. Everything that came to mind was something I wrote about in last year’s challenge, and didn’t need repeating for a second, third, or even fourth time. I also could not think of a creative way to bend the theme to suit some other purpose.

However, two days ago, well after this week’s theme was posted, we had a death in our extended family. Tomorrow is the funeral. It will be at a cemetery I used to pass often, when I lived in a different part of the city. Planning my route for tomorrow, the solitude of the location of the cemetery came to mind. It also reminded me of the quiet solitude of most cemeteries I’ve been to, whether in a remote rural location or in the middle of a bustling urban centre.

Solitude is often characterized by descriptions of melancholy, sadness, misery, and unhappiness. I don’t think that’s accurate. To me, that’s loneliness, the opposite of solitude. Solitude is more a description of the contentment or joy one can experience with being in a quiet place or on your own. It’s descriptive of what we wish for our deceased loved ones when we say, “rest in peace”.

So, to our late family member, rest in peace. May your memory be a blessing.

A couple of visitors enjoyng the quiet solitude of Mountain View Cemetery in Lethbridge, Alberta.

52W Mark II – Week 14: Begins With A Vowel

For this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge, “Begins With A Vowel”, I decided to be more graphical. So I created a word cloud for all the surnames of my direct ancestors whose surnames begin with a vowel.

I have many more surnames in my tree that start with a vowel, but these are just my direct ancestors. There are even a few people in my tree whose first, middle, and last names all begin with vowels!

I have 14 direct ancestors whose surname begins with “A”, three whose begin with “E” (my Eglin and Elgin ancestors are not related, other than through me!), one each for “I” and “O”, and none for “U”, “Y”, and “IJ”.

“What? ‘IJ’??” you say?

In the Dutch language, IJ is treated as a letter unto itself. In fact, in my reading it appears that there is some debate on the matter in the Netherlands, although in Flanders (a Dutch-speaking province in Belgium), it’s considered two letters. Technically speaking, “ij” is a digraph of the letters “i” and “j”, forming a single phoneme (distinct sound). It doesn’t have an exact sound counterpart in English, although it can sound somewhat like a long “i”. When a word that begins with the diagraph is capitalized, both the “i” and “j” are capitalized. The “ij” in Dutch words are often changed to a “y” when adapted into English. In modern Dutch, words with the letter “y” are most often ones that were borrowed from other languages.

For example, a Dutch surname that begins with “IJ” is “IJzerman”, which means “iron man” or “man of iron” in English. You will sometimes see this name changed to “Yzerman” in English. Ice hockey fans will be familiar with Steve Yzerman, whose grandfather immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands at the beginning of the 20th century. Given his success in the sport, “man of iron” is a fitting moniker.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Depending on whether you consider “IJ” to be one letter or two, it can be spelled “R-IJ-K-S” or “R-I-J-K-S”