Gepasporteerd (literally: passported) means a passport was issued. You will typically come across the term in military service records in the 1800s. At the end of service, a soldier received a passport to show he fulfilled his military duties. Since these passports were given to the soldiers, they may have survived in private collections but are unlikely to turn up in archives. See the reader question about military passports in the 1800s for an example. Military passport. Collection Museum Kennemerland (public domain ..read more

Sometimes, maps are created in civil lawsuits, for example in boundary disputes. I love these maps for the details they provide, not just about the location but about the people in the community. This week we are looking at a map of Bodegraven that shows the houses around the church in 1664. The map was originally part of a law suit, but archivists in the 1800s separated all the maps from the rest of the cases to put in a map collection. That collection of Domestic Maps Hingman has a lot of manuscript maps like this. Map of a part of Bodegraven around the church, 1664. Credits: Floris Damen v ..read more

Here is an overview of the new sources, projects, and other news from the past month. Sources The stories of 2100 Engelandvaarders [England sailors] are now available at the National Archives website. Engelandvaarders were Dutch citizens who went to the United Kingdom during World War II, where they were debriefed by British and Dutch security services. The interrogation reports are now online at the website of the National Archives. Petitions to the parliament of the Batavian Republic 1796-1801 are available via the National Archives. Income tax records from about 1850 to 1930 ..read more

Saint Eustatius in the West Indies is one of the Netherlands Antilles. In the 1700s, it was a colony of the Netherlands. This manuscript maps shows the island in the early 1700s and marks all the plantation owners on the map. The archival description says this map dates from the 18th century. Based on research on the island I recognize several of the names as plantation owners in the early 1700s. Map of St. Eustatius with a list of names of owners and properties, early 1700s. Credits: call no. 339, Record Group 4.MIKO, Nationaal Archief, The Hague (public domain). Translated legend with abbr ..read more

Around 1566, Jacobus van Deventer was charged by the King of Spain and ruler of the Habsburg empire that included the Netherlands to create maps of all the major cities in the country. This was shortly before the outbreak of the Eighty Years War, which started when several noblemen abjured the King as their overlord to form the independent Republic of the United Netherlands.  Maps of Jacobus van Deventer can be found in collections of different archives in the Netherlands and Spain. Among the maps created by Jacobus van Deventer was one of Brielle. Brielle became the location of a famous ..read more

I have written before about using guardianship records for genealogical research. Most often, we use these records to find out who became the guardian over minor children after our ancestors died. Less often, we will check those records to see for whom our ancestors were guardians. Since guardians were often close relatives, this can be a clue about the ancestor’s family. If guardianships are indexed, that is usually by the (deceaded) parents only, not by guardian, so this may require turning the pages to see what is there. Father and his children, Pieter de Mare, 1768 – 1795. Credits: Rijksm ..read more

Between 1865-1868, Jacob Kuyper published a series of atlases with municipal maps. These show the location of all the hamlets, villages, and larger towns in the municipality, as well as the main roads and railroads. The Kuyper maps are often available at the websites of archives or via Wikimedia Commons. Here is an example of such a map, showing Nederweert in the province of Limburg in 1866. You can see the village itself was small, and crossed by two canals. The railroad ran through the southern tip of the municipality. Map of Nederweert, 1866. Credits: Wikimedia Commons (public domain ..read more

This is the twenty-eighth post in a series about my possible line of descent from Eleanor of Aquitaine. In the first post, I explained how I discovered the possible line, and how I am going to verify it one generation at a time. In the last post, I proved that my twenty-third great-grandmother Margaret, countess of Flanders, was the daughter of Marie of Champagne, countess of Flanders. Biography Marie of Champagne was born in the spring of 1171 as the second daughter of Henry, count of Champagne, and Marie of France. Her father also called himself count palatine of Troyes. Marie was just ..read more

In 1649, one of the most famous mapmakers in the Netherlands, Joan Blaeu published his atlas Tooneel der Steden [approx: Display of Cities]. This map shows Gouda, famous for its cheese market. The entire atlas is online at the Universiteit Utrecht. Map of Gouda by Johannes Blaeu, 1649 (public domain)   ..read more

Belending means abutting or adjoining. You may come across the term in notarial or court records involving properties. The belendende percelen are the abutting properties, that share a property boundary with the property that is being discussed. Many Dutch land records before the introduction of the Cadaster in 1832 identify the location of properties in terms of its neighbors, sometimes with cardinal directions, but often just in terms of “in between the houses of so-and-so.” Sometimes, the word belend (abutted) introduces the list of neighboring properties. Page in the map book of the Tonge ..read more