Tag: Netherlands

52W Mark IV – Week 6: Card V6 Dirk Pietersz van der Fluit

Dirk Pietersz van der Fluit (1811-1857) was a labourer and farmer.

This week we take a first look at my 32 Gx3 Grandparents, starting with
Dirk Pietersz van der Fluit. I actually got a bit sidetracked with this post, not because I was trying to fill gaps in my knowledge about Dirk, but because I kept returning to all the outstanding questions I have about Dirk’s father, Petrus Pietersz (“Pieter”) van der Fluit (1759-1829).

I have had a long-standing curiosity about the circumstances that caused Pieter, the eldest of 11 children, to pull up roots from Voorhout, Zuid Holland and relocate to Nieuwe Niedorp, Noord Holland, leaving all his other family behind.

The other thing I’ve started to ponder about Pieter is how he spent the first 40 years of his life. I know absolutely nothing about his life between baptism in 1760 and marriage to Maartje de Vlieger in 1800. Everything I’ve found so far indicates that Pieter married only once, yet I have to wonder if he was married sometime before he turned 40. However, despite all my efforts so far, I can find no record of Pieter before he married Maartje, including a previous marriage.

Unfortunately, Pieter is one generation beyond the scope of my writing plan for the 52 Ancestors Challenge for 2025. Maybe I’ll do a separate post about Pieter outside of the Challenge. In the meantime, this week is supposed to be about Dirk!

Dirk was the third of four children born to Pieter and Maartje. He was born in February 1811 in Nieuwe Niedorp, Noord Holland. He was born only a few short months after Napoleon abolished the puppet state of the Kingdom of Holland and incorporated the Netherlands as an integral part of the French Empire.

Church baptism register showing Dirk’s baptism on February 14, 1811, which is on the bottom half of the image. The entry at the top is Jacobus Stroet, Dirk’s future brother-in-law. Dirk married Jacobus’s younger sister, Aaltje.

I know nothing about Dirk between the time he was baptized and age 24, when he married Aaltje Klaasse Stroet on May 16, 1835 in Nieuwe Niedorp. Dirk was a labourer at the time he married and likely had been in that occupation for several years. He was still a labourer in 1843 according to the death registration for his son, Jan.

Within a year of marriage, the newlyweds had relocated to Oude Niedorp. Sometime around 1847 Dirk became a farmer in ‘t Veld, as that was the occupation listed in the death registration of another son, also named Jan. (There was a third Jan – my Gx2 Grandfather, born between the other two Jans.)

Together Dirk and Aaltje had 13 children; eight survived infancy. All 13 were born in gemeente (municipality) Oude Niedorp, but most likely in ‘t Veld, which was one of the villages in the gemeente. ‘t Veld is now within gemeente Hollands Kroon.

Dirk spent the rest of his life in ‘t Veld (Oude Niedorp). He died there on February 8, 1857, likely little more than a week after his 45th birthday. It appears that Aaltje took over the farm, and lived another 24 years.

Dirk’s death registration.

As for Pieter, like a dog with a bone, I couldn’t stop poking at various sources to find out his past marital status before marrying Maartje. Lo and behold, a register of marriage banns for Voorhout listed Pieter as “jongeman”, which means he had never been married before. So what was he doing the previous 40 years?

Pieter van der Fluyt, jongeman, and Maria de Vlieger, jongedr. So neither had been married before.

52W Mark IV – Week 5: Card V5 Ariaantje Jacobs (Adriana or Jaantje) Bleeker

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.

Adriana’s bidprentje, front and back.

52W Mark IV – Week 4: Card V4 Johannes Jansz (Jan) Pater

Johannes Jansz (“Jan”) Pater (1862-1935)

I’ve always found it amazing when talking to my grandparents’ generation about their grandparents. I remember when my great aunt Addie casually mentioned in passing about how she’d usually go to her grandmother’s house every day after school. It immediately popped into my head that she was talking about someone who was born in the mid-19th century. It felt like a bridge through time.

Likewise for my Gx2 grandfather, Johannes Jansz (“Jan”) Pater. I found an article in a Dutch magazine, Toendertoid: Stichting Waarland van Toen (“Then and There: Foundation of Waarland“) containing an interview of my great uncle Jan van der Fluit (“Ome Jan” 1918-2011), where he shared childhood recollections of his grandfather Jan Pater. I met Ome Jan on my first trip to Waarland. He was still living in the house where he was born and spent his childhood. Reading Ome Jan’s story made me feel like there was no barrier in time and space between me and my Gx2 grandfather.

Jan’s birth registration

Jan Pater was born on April 14, 1862 in Oude Niedorp, Noord Holland. By 1882, Jan was working in Oude Niedorp as a farm labourer, as noted in a militia register. Military service was compulsory. Jan’s military service was as a conscript under the national service (the militia), somewhat equivalent to reserve or national guard duty. Adrianus was assigned to the “torpedo corps”. The militia register shows that Adrianus was 172 cm (5′ 7 1/2″) tall with a flat face, low forehead, gray eyes, a “just” nose, and blond hair.

Jan remained in Oude Niedorp at least until 1888, working as a farm labourer. On April 19, 1888, he married Ariaantje Jacobs (“Adriana” or “Jaantje”) Bleeker in gemeente Harenkarspel, Noord Holland. At the start of their marriage, they briefly lived with Adriana’s parents, but by the time their first child was born they had moved out on their own. Together Jan and Adriana had four children, three boys and one girl (my great grandmother, Teetje Pater). The eldest only lived a few weeks; the others lived to adulthood.

After he and Adriana were married, Jan continued to work as a labourer. Sometime around 1917 he began farming in Slootgaard, a village within Harenkarspel. It is now part of gemeente Schagen.

According to Ome Jan’s account, Jan Pater had over three acres of land where he carried out mixed farming. Jan’s youngest son – and Ome Jan’s uncle – was also named Jan, who helped on his father’s farm. The elder Jan had four cows and a horse, while the younger Jan had 100 brown and white chickens.

My records indicate Jan continued farming in Slootgaard at least until 1930, when he was in his late 60s. However, the registration of his death in 1935 indicates that he was still farming at that time. Jan’s death was due to an unfortunate accident with a horse at a railway crossing.

Addendum March 2, 2025: Always pay attention to the FAN club: “Friends, Associates, and Neighbours”! When an ancestor has a lot of siblings, it can be tedious to do all the research on them, too. Often I’ll do a quick-and-dirty entry into my database and then leave it languish for years.

Tonight I was flushing out my research on Jan’s siblings. For the four oldest, it was mostly entering information from death records, as the first two died very shortly after birth and the next two died shortly before their 17th birthdays. It wasn’t until the fifth child, Antje, two years older than Jan, that any child of Jan Pater and Teetje de Groot survived to adulthood.

Going through Antje’s marriage registration, I saw that one of the witnesses was her younger brother Jan. Then I expanded the image on the screen and noticed the signatures on the proceeding page were the same. What? Zooming in, I realized it was Jan and Adriana’s marriage registration! A double wedding. Siblings Antje and Jan got married the same day!

Signatures of the parties and witnesses of the double wedding of siblings Jan Pater (left) and Antje Pater (right)

52W Mark IV – Week 3: Card V3 Maartje Veldman

I have photos of thirteen of my sixteen great great grandparents. Maartje Veldman (1862-1904) is one of three for whom I don’t.

Maartje Veldman was the mother of Johannis Albertus van der Fluit and my father’s great grandmother. She was also the second wife of Jan Dirksz van der Fluit. Maartje was born on December 22, 1862 in Nieuwe Niedorp, Noord Holland, the third child of Jan Veldman and Trintje Stoop.

Like many unmarried Dutch women of her social status, and several of my other female ancestors, Maartje worked as a dienstbode (domestic servant) before she was married. Fortunately for genealogists, many gemeenten (plural of gemeente, a form of municipality usually comprised of several communities) kept a Dienstboderegister as part of their Burgerlijke Standregisters (Civil Registration Registers). This was due, in part, because many domestic servants lived with the families they served.

What caught my eye about Maartje’s registration is that she started work as a domestic servant much younger than my other ancestors. She was 14 years old when she began her first job on June 7, 1877. Her family was resident in Barsingerhorn, but her work was for a family that lived about 7.5 kilometers south, in Oude Niedorp. Maartje remained with that family until February 5, 1879, a couple months after she turned 16.

Another thing that caught my eye was that two weeks before Maartje left Oude Niedorp, her older sister Elizabeth (1861-1935), moved to Oude Niedorp to work as a domestic servant. Elizabeth is directly below Maartje in the Dienstboderegister. Elizabeth was 17 years old at the time. Elizabeth remained there until January 23, 1882, when she returned home to Barsingerhorn. Elizabeth married her first husband, Arie Zut, three months later, on April 21, 1882.

Maartje and Elizabeth in the Oude Niedorp Dienstboderegister (Servant Register) 1860-1889.

I haven’t found any indication that Elizabeth had worked as a domestic servant prior to this posting. What seemed odd is that the younger sister left home for work before the elder sister.

Coming and going. The top line is Maartje, the one below is Elizabeth.

There was no rest for Maartje when she left Oude Niedorp and returned home to Barsingerhorn. She immediately began work for a new family that was also resident in Barsingerhorn, which meant that Maartje was able to live at home with her parents during this job.

The Dienstboderegister does not indicate how long Maartje worked as a domestic servant in Barsingerhorn. All I know is that she was no longer working when she married Jan.

Top of the entry for the registration of Jan and Maartje’s marriage.

Jan and Maartje had seven children together, but the first two died shortly after birth. The rest survived to adulthood and married. The youngest child, a daughter named Brigettha Maria, was born on July 4, 1904. Maartje died one month later, on August 5, 1904, in Oude Niedorp. She was 41 years old. While I do not have a cause of death, I cannot help but wonder if it had been related to childbirth.

The signatures of Jan, Maartje, and the witnesses on the marriage registration.

UPDATE!

February 15, 2025: Eureka, I’ve found a photo of Maartje!

It’s Maartje Veldman!