Veldman – A Deck of Ancestors

52W Mark IV – Week 8: Card V8 Jan Gerritsz Veldman

I generally think of my Dutch ancestors – particularly the paternal side of my father’s family – as labourers, farmers, domestic workers, or similar. I suspect that the maternal side of my father’s family might have been better off, although by how much I cannot say. With a couple exceptions, I have to go five or six generations back to find something other than farmer or labourer, such as a cordwainer and a cobbler, a harbour pilot, or a sailor. Of those who worked the land, I doubt few of them actually owned their farms.

One exception is my Gx3 Grandfather, Jan Gerritsz Veldman. During the 52 Ancestors Challenge in 2023 , I described him and his wife Trijntje Stoop as “prosperous“. However, at one point in time he may have been even better off than I had previously thought.

Jan was born on November 27, 1835 in Nieuwe Niedorp, Noord Holland. He was the eighth of twelve children born to Gerrit Veldman and Maartje Cornelis Zijbecarspel. In 1855, when he was 20, he was drafted for the militia, as the Netherlands had mandatory military service until the 1990s. Many conscripts never actually served; rather, they were largely on-call, like a reserve. However, according to his marriage registration, Jan had “bought” himself a replacement.

According to my late friend Nol van den Hurk, this was a common practice “if you had money.” I asked if this meant Jan was well off, Nol responded:

Whether Jan was well to do or not I can’t tell you. The archives hold papers you had to show when you wanted to marry. One of the papers is an official document that showed that you had fulfilled your duty in the Army. In Jan’s case I saw a document, signed by the Queens commissioner’s clerk in the Province North Holland (who was responsible for those things in those days) that said that Jan had his military duties done by a replacement. This was not uncommon in those days, but it never stated who paid for it. It might have been the bride’s father, the groom’s father, the groom himself…. When he was the only son of a farmer, he did not have to join the army. If so, it was stated so in the document.

The passage from Jan and Trijntje’s marriage registration that speaks of Jan having discharged his obligation for military service.

Jan and Trijntje married on May 1, 1858 in Nieuwe Niedorp. I have a copy of their marriage registration, but unfortunately I have not yet found a copy of their huwelijksbijlagen (marriage supplements) online. The marriage supplements are a set of documents the couple had to provide before they could marry, such as birth extracts and other vital records. As well, it used to include a record confirming that the groom had satisfied his mandatory military service. It would be nice if I could visit the Dutch archives in person, but I doubt I’ll be in the Netherlands in the foreseeable future.

The opening portion of Jan and Trijntje’s marriage registration, showing their names, ages, occupations, places of birth, residence, and parents, among other things.

At the time he married Trijntje, Jan was working as a farmer in Nieuwe Niedorp; however, their eldest child, Gerrit, was born in Harenkarspel in 1859. It is likely that Jan actually lived and worked in ‘t Veld, a village within gemeente (municipality) Nieuwe Niedorp, as reflected in the bevolkingsregister (“population register”) of Nieuwe Niedorp for 1860-1870. There was a subsequent bevolkingsregister for ‘t Veld for 1870–1880, which also listed Jan and his family. As for ‘t Veld, it later became part of gemeente Oude Niedorp. It is now within gemeente Hollands Kroon.

It appears that Jan and Trijnte did very well for themselves while living in ‘t Veld. I recently discovered that they were prosperous enough to have domestic servants in the late 1860s. The first, Jansje, worked for Jan and Trijntje until January 1868, but I do not yet know how long she had been there before leaving. The second, Brigitta, worked from February to December 1868.

I *love* seeing the signatures of my ancestors from so long ago. Here are my Gx3 Grandparents, along with the bride’s parents, my Gx4 Grandparents, 167 years ago.

Jan and Trijntje had eight more children who were born in Nieuwe Niedorp. It appears that all but two children survived infancy and childhood. In May 1872, Jan, Trijntje, and their children moved to Barsingerhorn, which is about five kilometers north of ‘t Veld. There they had the last of their ten children, Aantje, born in 1873.

Upon relocating to Barsingerhorn, Jan and Trijntje began to acquire several pieces of farm properties, which together formed two separate properties. One property consisted of two lots in Oude Niedorp of about 0.157 hectares (about 0.4 acres), on which there was a house. The other property was a farm consisting of 20 lots in Barsingerhorn, totalling about 11.9 hectares (just under 3o acres). The farm property included a farmhouse, pastures, farmland, and a boat.

*Approximate size of the total amount of land Jan and Trijntje owned: 24 American football fields (FYI, Canadian football fields are longer.)*

When Jan died on May 21, 1897, these pieces of property passed to Trijntje. Within a year after she died, on January 27, 1906, these properties were put up for auction. The auction noticed valued the first property at ƒ835, while the second property was valued at ƒ17,152.66. Together, they amounted to about CDN$427,958.27 in 2025 dollars.

Schager Courant, June 20, 1897, page 3: “Overleden” (Deceased), 21 May, Jan Veldman, age 61, husband of Trijntje Stoop

*Schager Courant, Schagen, Noord Holland, Netherlands, November 11, 1906, page 4.*
*“Openbare Verkooping” (“Public Sale”). This is an itemized list of Jan and Trijntje’s two properties that went up for public auction after Trijntje died.*

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!

52W Mark II – Week 37: Prosperity

This week’s theme for the 52 Ancestors Challenge is “Prosperity”. While for the most part my ancestors over the centuries were largely working class and labourers, I have some that might have been described as “comfortable”. Thinking about it, the only ancestors who I might describe as “prosperous” are largely on the maternal branch of my family tree.

Despite this, the couple that come to mind for this week’s challenge are my Gx3 Grandparents on my father’s side of the family, Jan Gerritsz Veldman and Trijntje Stoop. I think of them primarily because of the amount of time I spent translating a pair of newspaper items describing their estate. Not only was it somewhat difficult because the items were written in an older form of Dutch, but because there was more to interpret than just the foreign language. In particular, the values were reported in guilders, the Dutch currency prior to the introduction of the euro; as well, the land was measured in terms that were not immediately familiar.

*Schager Courant*, Schagen, Noord Holland, Netherlands, November 11, 1906, page 4.
“Openbare Verkooping” (“Public Sale”). This is an itemized list of the two pieces of property, consisting of 20 and 2 lots respectively, that went up for public auction after Trijntje died.

Trijntje was born October 30, 1832 in Haringhuizen, Noord Holland, Netherlands. Jan was born November 27, 1835 in Nieuwe Niedorp, Noord Holland, Netherlands. The two villages are about five kilometers apart. They married in Nieuwe Niedorp on May 1, 1858. They were living in Nieuwe Niedorp as late as 1866, when their fifth child was born. However, by 1873, they were living in Barsingerhorn, Noord Holland, Netherlands, where their tenth and last child was born. Barsingerhorn and Haringhuizen are relatively close to each other, situated about a kilometer and a half apart.

Jan died on May 21, 1897 while Trijntje passed away on January 27, 1906. The couple owned two pieces of property which Trijntje still possessed at the time of her death. One was a house comprised of two lots in Oude Niedorp, Noord Holland, Netherlands, together measuring 15.7 ares (just under 0.4 acres). [“Are” = 100 square meters. 100 Ares = 1 hectare. 1 hectare is just under 2.5 acres.] The other was a farm consisting of 2o lots in Barsingerhorn, which included a farmhouse, pastures, farmland, and a boat, totalling 11.9 hectares (just under 3o acres).

Map of the Netherlands with the province of Noord-Holland in red. The inset shows where Jan and Trijntje lived and owned property. I’ve circled Waarland because that is where my father was born. He did not live far from where his great great grandparents lived.

*Schager Courant*, Schagen, Noord Holland, Netherlands, November 18, 1906, page 4.
“Bericht van Inzet” (“Notice of Commitment”).

According to both articles, the auction was scheduled to begin on November 13, 1906, although the second indicated that it was to have remained open until November 20, 1906. The second article set out the proposed value of each lot. Lots 1 to 20, the Barsingerhorn farm, had a total proposed value of ƒ17,152.66. Lots 21 and 22, the house in Oude Niedorp, were ƒ835.

By my calculations, these currently amount to €269,971.80 and €13,142.87 respectively, for a total of €283,114.67. (CDN$389,369.30 and CDN$18,955.42. Total: $408,324.72.) That might seem like a lot, but that’s barely enough to get a 500 square foot (0.01 acre) one bedroom condo apartment in Vancouver.

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