While preparing this long-overdue post, I became distracted by the fact that my grandfather, Arie van der Fluit, has Bleekers on both his paternal and maternal line. Jacob Bleeker, Arie’s great grandfather, is on his maternal line. Arie’s Bleeker connection on his paternal line is much further back – his closest Bleeker ancestor is his Gx3 grandmother, Marijtje Pieterz Bleeker.
The other night I connected the two Bleeker lines. Jacob’s great grandfather, Klaas Pietersz Bleeker (1736-1782), and Marijtje Pietersz Bleeker (1742-?), were siblings. The result is that my grandfather was his own fifth cousin once removed. Hello “pedigree collapse“!
Baptism record for Marijtje Bleeker (top) and Klaas Bleeker (Jan’s great grandfather). The best part of this quest is that I now know the names of Marijtje and Klaas’s parents: Pieter Willemsz Bleeker and Anna Jacobsz.
Turning to this week’s card, Jacob was born on January 21, 1828 in Oude Niedorp, Noord Holland. He was the second of six children and second son, of Cornelis Pietersz Bleeker and Jacoba de Jong. Jacob’s parents, and all his siblings, appear to have lived their entire lives in Oude Niedorp. The one exception was Jan.
Jacob’s birth registration
Jacob married Trijntje Jansen on May 12, 1855, in Oude Niedorp. Like Jacob, at the time of the marriage Trijntje had spent her entire life in Oude Niedorp. Their first two children, Jacoba and Cornelis, were also born in Oude Niedorp. Sometime between Cornelis’s birth in 1859 and his sister Adriana’s birth in 1865, Jacob and family relocated to Harenkarspel, the gemeente (municipality) directly west of Oude Niedorp.
I haven’t found much about what Jacob was doing between 1859 and 1865. I had wondered whether there had been another child born between Cornelis and Adriana, given the six year gap, but found nothing. At most, it appears that in Oude Niedorp and his first years in Harenkarspel, Jacob worked as a labourer. He was still reported as being a labourer in 1867, when his youngest child, Aagje, was born. It appears that he might have worked as a farmer or farm labourer in 1886, but otherwise it seems that he worked as a labourer for most of his life. His death registration listed labourer as his occupation.
Ariaantje Jacobs (“Adriana” or “Jaantje”) Bleeker (1865-1929)
When I first started tracing my Dutch line further back further than my great grandparents, I started coming upon some very clearly Germanic and feminine sounding names but did not sound cute in any way. Then again, what should I expect from a language where the word for “cute” is “schattig” – definitely not a cute sounding word to an Anglo ear, especially with that Dutch “g”!
One of the standouts of these was my second great grandmother, Ariaantje Jacobs Bleeker. Ariaantje did not easily roll off the tongue when I first encountered it, but it came to me quickly. Like most people in the Netherlands, she did not go by Ariaantje on a daily basis. She is often referred to as “Adriana” or “Jaantje” in the records.
Adriana was born on February 15, 1865 (160 years ago this month!) in Harenkarspel, Noord Holland. For the longest time, I have had Adriana as the third of three children born to Jacob Bleeker and Trijntje Jansen. However, given the age gap between Adriana and her older brother, Cornelis, I suspected there might have been some other children in between.
Mind the gap!
I’ve done some digging to fill the gap. One strategy I’ve employed is looking at Adriana’s FAN club: her “Friends, Associates, and Neighbours”. So far I haven’t found any missing siblings. It’s still on my research to-do list, although it has not been a priority.
Marriage Registration for Jan Pater and Ariaantje Bleeker (top and bottom)
It appears that Adriana lived with her parents in Harenkarspel until she married Jan Pater on April 19, 1888. The Bevolkingsregister(population register) for Harenkarspel shows that she relocated to Heerhugowaard on April 20, 1888. Jan and Adriana had four children: Johannes (who only lived two weeks), Jacob, Teetje (my great grandmother), and Jan. Only Jacob and Teetje married. Jan worked on his parents’ farm for many years after reaching adulthood.
Adriana died on July 8, 1929, at home in Slootgaard, a village in gemeente Harenkarspel.
Death registration for Adriana.
The bidprentje (prayer card or in memoriam card) for Adriana’s funeral states that she was buried at the church cemetery in Waarland, which at the time was part of gemeente Heerhugowaard. This would be St. Wulfram’s Church (left), which I drove past the last time I was in the Netherlands. However, there would have been no point in stopping to look for her grave, because graves in the Netherlands are usually cleared within thirty years. A quick check of Online Begraafplaatsen (a database of Dutch cemeteries) shows no entries for Adriana at the St. Wulfram cemetery, which is consistent with her grave having been cleared.
I had a 20-year “pen pal” relationship with my great aunt, Anny van Kleef (née Komen). This is the first letter I received from her. She wrote about returning home from her trip to Canada, as well as the weather.
I have been trying to teach myself Dutch since I was 12. I’ve had a modicum of success.
I was about five-years-old when I first learned that English was not my father’s first language. I begged him to teach me something in Dutch. All he taught me was the word “groen”, meaning “green”. However, the Dutch “g” was not yet familiar to my ear, so I though he was saying “zoom”. I was more than thrilled to run around saying “Zoom! Zoom!, I’m speaking Dutch!”
While that’s all the Dutch he has imparted to me, my father is more than happy to teach his grandchildren the very useful Dutch phrase “grote blote billen.” When our youngest son was a toddler, he somehow learned to tell me “je bent gek.” Thanks, dad. I’ll leave you to use Google Translate to figure out those phrases.
Speaking of grote blote billen…
When I was in grade school, the principal often asked me if I was Belgian. I couldn’t figure out why, so I asked my mother. “Because you have a Dutch last name.” That made no sense to me. At the time, I didn’t know that Belgium was bilingual, and thought they only spoke French. I also was confused about her answer that suggested that surnames had ethnic and linguistic connections and meaning. There were few Anglo-Saxon surnames in our town, so to me surnames were just random collections of letters – mine included. I had no idea they had meaning. Mom’s answer was yet another of the many sparks that sparked my interest in genealogy and in learning Dutch.
I bought this when I was 12 and still have it.
When I was 12, an aunt and uncle of my father came to Canada for a visit, Tante Anny and Ome Nic. Tante Anny was one of my grandmother’s sisters. I was so excited. I knew we had family in the Netherlands, but I had never met any of them before. I was even more fascinated when I was told they only spoke Dutch. I took some of my spending money and ran to the bookstore to buy myself a Dutch phrase book.
I remember my father being really intrigued by it. He came to Canada as a small boy, so his Dutch never progressed beyond an elementary school level. “So that’s what my mother was saying all those years!”, he said more than once. I still have that book.
Despite the language barrier, Tante Anny and I connected right away during her visit. Shortly after she arrived, I came down with a small cold. She sat with me for hours, chatting to me in Dutch, me answering in English. There was a lot of hand gesturing. After a while, I started to pick up a few bits and pieces. Nothing much, but it was a start.
Me with Ome Nic and Tante Anny in October 1990.
After Tante Anny returned to Canada, we entered into an ongoing correspondence that continued until she passed away twenty years later. I wrote to her in English and her children translated for her. She wrote in Dutch, and my father translated for me. However, I’d pore over those letters, trying to figure them out for myself.
When I moved away from home to start university, I continued my correspondence with Tante Anny, but had to fend for myself with the translation. I bought myself a Dutch-English dictionary (which I still have!) and painstakingly translated each letter on my own. Fortunately, being related languages, some words were not so difficult to work out. As well, after you look up the same word dozens and dozens of times, it starts to sink in. My greatest problem was with idiomatic terms and some of the more informal constructions. Once in a while I’d phone my dad for help, but I had very little grasp of how to pronounce the written words. He enjoyed some gentle teasing at my expense after hearing me mangle the language.
My first trip to Europe was in 1990, with a university friend. Our itinerary had us in the Netherlands for two weeks and we were staying with Tante Anny and Ome Nic. To supplement what I had learned on my own, I enlisted a couple of my Dutch-speaking friends to give me a crash course. One of them loaned me a Dutch translation of a Richard Scarry book. It might have been humbling, but it was a great learning tool.
My family in the Netherlands were very encouraging as I tried to prattle on in Dutch. What surprised me the most was that they all kept saying that I spoke Dutch like my father. That made no sense to me – Dutch was his first language! I finally asked why they kept telling me that. They answered it was because I kept saying “Mijn nederlands is niet zo goed,” which apparently what my father kept saying when he visited the Netherlands a few years earlier. I was also told I spoke Dutch like a book, or an old lady, which was true, because that’s how I had learned.
A year or two after my trip, I took a night course in Dutch offered through the local school board. It was the only time I had formal training in the language. I still have my textbook to this day! It was also my introduction to the famous aap-noot-mies leesplankje (“ape nut mouse reading board”). It was developed at the end of the 19th century and generations of Dutch children had it as a tool as they began to learn to read. I still have my textbook from that class, and my photocopy of the leesplankje is still tucked inside.
My decades-old photocopy of the aap-noot-mies leesplankje
By the mid-1990s, I began to acquire some of family history records from sources in the Netherlands. If memory serves, one of the first documents I ever obtained was the death registration for my great great grandmother, Ariaantje Jacobs Bleeker, born February 15, 1865. Other records followed, including the persoonskaart (“persons card”) for my father and his family. Personal privacy rules weren’t what they are today, so it was easier to obtain records like that, given that at the time everyone named on the persoonskaart was still alive. I also became familiar with the burgerlijke stand (“civil register”). Unlike some unfortunate researchers, I knew right away it was not a village in the Netherlands.
Birth registration for my great great grandmother, Ariaantje Bleeker (1865 – 1929). It took me forever to translate this when I first obtained it. I have now read hundreds of similar birth, marriage, and death registrations, so I am well versed in this vocabulary.
I also used my correspondence with Tante Anny to further my genealogy research. I created a simple questionnaire and a pedigree chart that I spent a lot of time writing in Dutch, in order to make it easier for her to respond. I figured the easier I made it for her, the more likely it was that she’d fill them out. She did, although in her reply letter she queried why I’d want to know about something that was so uninteresting as family history. I often amuse myself by thinking she said that only because there is something interesting worth knowing that she didn’t want me to find. However, in the 25 years since she wrote that, I have not found anything that would support that idea.
Between my genealogical pursuits and correspondence with Tante Anny, there were some subjects I could understand with ease. The last time Tante Anny came to Canada, we watched my sister’s wedding video, and I was able to speak about the people and relationships without too much trouble. I was also very good with talking about cabbage farming.
Twee spoorwagens kool bij de zuurkoolfabriek. (“Two carts of cabbage at the sauerkraut factory.”) (Yes, I know “spoorwagen” is a “railway car”, but that’s what my family in the Netherlands calls these.)
This is at the Kramer sauerkraut factory in Zuid-Scharwoude, North Holland. My Ome Nic took us there for a tour at the crack of stupid in the morning, because of a query my dad made about possibly importing it to Canada. It was actually a pretty cool (or “kool”) experience! My Ome Nic is the person on the left, in the hat.
Over the years, I’ve tried different ways to teach myself Dutch. Just before my last trip to the Netherlands, I started using Duolingo. It was an amazing tool at the time, and my knowledge of Dutch improved rapidly. I even used it every day during my stay in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, Duolingo is not what it once was, and it has changed a lot for the worse in recent years. With its latest changes, I find it is not a good learning tool at all. I’m inclined to quit the site altogether, but for the fact I’ve got an amazing streak going on there. One of the stereotypes of the Dutch is that they’re stubborn, and I am stubbornly hanging on if only to see how far I can take this streak.
My Duolingo streak as of March 5, 2023.
The other great resource I’ve taken advantage of are the free courses offered by FutureLearn. Again, this was a much better resource in the past, but I have taken a number of courses through this program. I have taken their basic Introduction to Dutch course several times. I’ve also taken some genealogy courses through FutureLearn, including one in genetic genealogy that I’ve stalled out on due to sheer lack of free time.
There are now also so many great YouTubers and Instagrammers who provide some wonderful, fun, and educational videos that have been invaluable. These include Learn Dutch with Kim (YouTube, Instagram), JeDutchy (YouTube, Instagram), and Learn Dutch with Bart de Pau (YouTube).
While my proficiency in Dutch is now barely conversational, I have excelled in learning what I need to know of the language to conduct meaningful research in that language. The Netherlands is one of the non-English speaking countries with the highest degree of English-language proficiency in the world and many of their online genealogy resources are offered in English. As well, the “translate” feature of browsers like Chrome can be invaluable, as is Google Translate. However, while there may be transcriptions of the source documents in English, the original records are in Dutch only, and knowing the language allows me to squeeze out so much more information than I might be able to get otherwise. I’m also able to carry out very basic chats in Dutch with cousins in the Netherlands.
Before leaving, I’d like to share two videos I’ve watched countless times in trying to improve my Dutch. The first is an interview of Audrey Hepburn. Her Dutch is so beautiful and easy to understand. The other is an interview of Eddie and Alex van Halen, who were born in the Netherlands and whose first language was Dutch. I’ve seen her repeat this same interview with the same interviewer in French, and it is equally eloquent and easy to follow. You can click on the images to watch the videos.
Twelve weeks of genealogy, my true love gave to me: the theme “Joined Together” for the 52 Ancestors Challenge. Rather than a lot of discussion, I thought this week I’d post photos of some of the couples whose unions ultimately resulted in…me!
While I have photos of other (great) grandparents, I will only post for those of whom I have the pair. First, my maternal great great great grandparents.
William Burgess (1822 – 1904) Charlotte Liggett (1837 – 1909)Henry Lyman Cook (1803 – 1869) Susan Turple (1818 – 1906)Robert Nelson (1818 – 1902) Elizabeth Joseph (1818 – 1902)Preston Thomas (1814 – 1877) Maria Hadlond (1838 – 1907)
Adrianus Joseph “Arie” van der Fluit (1923 – 2002) Christina Komen (1923 – 2000)
“Trouwboekje” means “marriage booklet” in Dutch. In the Netherlands, only a civil marriage is legally valid. A church ceremony can take place afterward, but is not recognized by the state. The registry office would issue one to a couple at they time they were married. They typically include an extract of the marriage registration. While they can vary from one municipality to another, a trouwboekje usually will include space for the birth information of the couple, as well as for the children of the marriage. They can also include information about religious matters, such as information about the church wedding and baptisms of the couple and their children.
My maternal grandparents.
Leo Cleveland Burgess (1920- 1995) Helen Lerner (1921 – 1984) October 1971
Helen and Leo around 1947.
My parents. Married crazy young by current standards and still together, modelling what a great marriage should be.
A Deck of Ancestors 