We cannot study our family history well without looking at the context in which things took place. Traditions play an important role in our own life as well as that of our ancestors. Especially in the last weeks of the year traditions are key; whether it is Thanksgiving Day, Sinterklaas or Christmas. Sinterklaas has been Read more…
The decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) were the start of a formal and structural registration of life events in the Roman Catholic Church. Soon after, the Dutch Reformed Church and other denominations started recording births, marriages and deaths too. Other – and sometimes older – documents might also refer to life events, for Read more…
Last week we described the first part of Jack Snoeren’s life story. As a young boy, he moved with his parents from the Netherlands to Belgium. There he met Mary, whom he married in 1907. They lived in Antwerp and London. The two had bigger plans, they wanted to go further to the west… the Read more…