h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Recently, I have found myself drawn to family history and the tales of generations prior to them. An acquaintance of mine created this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2008/04/18/ladyinred_feature.shtml

and findings from my bf's life have been interesting, especially where he got that nose.

hi opi
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i have traced my family back to the 1700, but have info sent to me that takes it back to the french revolution, and in the belgium before that.
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in the past i did family searches at the local library for friends and a neibour. also on the first and second w war.
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if your at a loose end, try the fiches in the local lib, or the rolls, and the cenuses.
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if the search is for the areas around you, the electrol roll(books) go back to 1934 to 2000, then you are blocked with the new privacy law.
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if you want a cert for either birth, death, or marraige, its all on the fiches, and the registrar you have to send to, for the cert, cost is £7 each one. jim xx

for the advice

I've just found this A4185911 which reveals something about a relation of my bf's

hi opi
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some good news for you, if you havent seen it for yourself
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if you click the a guide and then the one that wrote it, they are still on the h2g2, as of 4 days ago, and he is a librarian in canterbury.
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so you might be able to contact with the discuss the entry, then use emails to see if the person can give you more info.
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do a google search, for free family search the latterday saints. it might find a few in the 1800 to early 1900.s jim xx

A long lost second cousin of mine, contacted me last year as he had been tracing our family tree right back, and it turned out that I am the last of the line, so it all stops here, as I dont have a son, just two daughters (that have not spoke to me since the divorce some 15 years ago now) He sent me a copy of the whole tree, it was massive, must have cost him a fortune just to send it?
It was very interesting in deed, and we were keeping in touch for a while, but that has stopped now
Smudger.

hi smudger
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i did my own to a point, then as i was using the internet two with my last name contacted me.
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one i couldnt connect with any i had direct, the other was a shocker, she was an 82 yr old lady from wigan, and it turned out she was i fathers, brothers, wife, she passed away a yr back, and ive had no contact from her daughters since,
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one of her daughters married my brothers workmate, a long time back, as my bro died in the late 80,s.
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i reached 1700, with family names and dates, but no way of seeing where they are are where, as the records stop at 1834. jim

You know Jim I may just do that

My father is in a similar position to you Smudger. I would like to double barrel my surname for this reason. My bf's not so taken by this idea but I've told him thats the way it would be. My initials would be HRM too

hi
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there are a few about that are free to a point, then want money to carry on, the latterday ones, arnt perfect but free.
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my last name is a french one, at one time i seperated it with an hyphen, but about 15 yrs back i found its all one.
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the truth and diligence in the tag ids the motto for the family i also have the scroll with the variations to the final one it is now. jim xx

I shall bare that in mind

One of my relatives has traced part of my family back to french aristocracy...perhaps subconsciously thats why I was drawn to learning french at school.

Quote "My father is in a similar position to you Smudger. I would like to double barrel my surname for this reason. My bf's not so taken by this idea but I've told him thats the way it would be. My initials would be HRM too"

Yea! My sister (who has also cut me off) is married to a Dutchman and lives in Holland , and they keep their maiden name and put it before their married name, making it double-barreled, that system is a lot better I think
Smudger.

I'm sure it would definitely help one find their roots

hi all
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i only have three names intials are JHD.
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the h i never use i hate the name lol, the only time i had to use it was on official things, , jim

I don't have a middle name. Not sure whether I should be about it or not.

Ooh tries guessing, well you could share a name with a royal or perhaps it's Henry or Hugo, maybe its foreign. No matter we still adore you Jim.

hi opi
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thankyou kind lady lol
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my first name is scottish as such, the second is royal, my last french, (clue it means) "of light", or so i was told.
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you want to be hapy your father wasnt into football, some poor lads have to have a whole, football tems names as there middle names.lol.
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i think i saw it somewhere, that is not allowed now. jim xx,xx

opps
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sory about missing letters, the k/board needs to be dismantled again to be cleaned, it as 48+ things to take off lol jim xx

Around 1998 I started, with the help of a professional, to spend all energy in research about my ancestors, long ago.
I have never had such an exciting experience.
I'm not that interested in only names and dates, but one needs these as a start and as a matter of security, because mistakes are often made, especially at the internet.

I became interested in theis jobs, their status, their fate. One was found dead in a canal, after three months of missing. The family had put an add in the first news paper of the netherlands and asked others if they had seen the man. He is described in all details.

Sometimes I found a painting about an ancestor.

And one thing was very impressive; a housekeeper of my ancestors, who was a protestant (anabaptist) and because of that was burried alive in 1597 outside Brussels.

I did write a story about my traveling back in time.
This is what I wrote.
Quote;

Searching for the violinist



After I escaped my parental home, I rarely stopped by that house again. On one of the occasions that I did, my mother grabbed the opportunity to give me a dramatic message. She walked towards her desk, opened a draw and from a wooden box, where I kept my allowance as a child, took out a picture of a sitting man, who’s holding a violin that’s resting on his leg.


“Look Fredo”, she said carefully – this because talking about her own family was just not done in this household – “This man once fled from the Basks and became a violist at the French court of Napoleon. He traveled with the court of his brother Lodewijk, who had his palace in Haarlem (Holland) and my mother gave this picture to me. I’m passing it on to you, to save it carefully.”
“I will”, was my promise and I put the picture of postcard size in my jacket and left.
Away from home.


Her dramatic message must have stuck with me, because it was on my wall during my marital years, between the pictures of my daughters. It gave a sense of history between the newcomers and I liked that.
As appreciation of that document I had a copy made and, as it turned out, that wasn’t unnecessary, because in an emotional outburst in the year of George Orwell, the violinist was ripped to pieces and thrown into the fireplace.


At the end of the nineties my mother passed away. And when my dad passed away a few years later, anecdotes on small papers, which she kept in a secret safe at the bank, surfaced. She wrote about whether to take mathematics in collage and how she wanted to be a pharmacist but became a secretary at Haas vinegar factory in Harlem.


I read about her dad who was supposed to be ‘on the wrong side’, but who during the war changed sides. He always secretly wore an orange tie and I see pictures of the family in a T-Ford and find notes about a violinist “who’s name was engraved in one of the walls of the ‘Princenhof’.

That last part grabs me and suddenly it appeals to me to start digging in history and also turning the promise of saving carefully into discovering about.
I’m also planning to buy a small house in about 5 years and who knows, maybe this birth town where this Spanish violist lived is the place where I would really want to live.

Even if it would only be to be buried there, even though I realize that in this Millennium there isn’t anything more difficult in Europe then to move a dead body from one country to another.
But a grave, on the side of a Spanish village where Olive trees whisper stories about ancestors, that seems like a burial place I would almost long to.
And so the violinist arrives on stage again.
He now functions as a compass in a new episode in my life.
It’s October 2003.



Through the Net I start looking for anything about Napoleons, even though I’ve never been a fan of them. And I try to contact the ‘Lodewijk Napoleon institution’ hoping to find everything at once about what I’m looking for. Unfortunately the wife of the initiator of this foundation told me on the phone that ‘her husband died in ’93 and everything ended then, because shortly after his brother also died and there was no one to take over the lead’.

Death never sleeps, apparently. In my case though, it only motivates me to dig up the stories of the dead now that I still can. Time has many faces and for now I borrow its mask of curiosity to discover what’s still left to discover.

Couragesly I realize that there just ‘has to be an institution who can tell me in which wall of the ‘Princenhof pales’ de name of my Spanish ancestor is engraved.
It’s the first pin on my imaginable notice board. There, in my own hometown.

I call, e-mail, read and fax to see where my questions end up and I may finally receive the fist few answers. It’s very convenient that I could scan the picture and attach it to my e-mail. Who knows, maybe someone will recognize it instantly!

After two days I receive an answer that stuns me right away.
“Do you realize that Lodewijk Napoleon lived here from 1810 ‘till 1813 and that the very first picture was mad in 1847 and that it wasn’t popular until 1870? On top of that, the ‘Princenhof’ is not a palace, it’s a city hall.

“Oh”

Finding is calculating. This man doesn’t seem any older that 50 and wouldn’t be younger than 15 when he played for ‘the Court’, as my mother would officially and with capital wrote it. So he had to be at least 15 in 1810 and he couldn’t have let his picture taken before 1865, so the man in the picture had to be at least 70 years old.

“There goes my Court violinist, my job as a treasure keeper and my compass in the Mediterranean world”, became conclusion number 1.
Here I am, cut of from any Spanish/French inheritance, exotic phenomenon’s included.
What’s still standing about my explanation, that in every crisis in my life I end up in Spain and being there, I suddenly have to come up with what I’m going to do there, now I’m there.
My just being there was apparently enough and I knew why. There were my roots.

The feeling of living without a destiny grew every day and I looked for comfort at institutions who kept archives. Longing slowly becomes a life priority.
On top of that, these institutions turn out to be a maze using legal terms that are as unclear to me as Dutch in the middle ages. Kafka is nothing compared to this.
There are birth certificates, personal cards, family cards, church books, marital acts, etc. And every form of registration has its own archive in yet another building at yet another institution.
On the Net there turns out to be a jungle of possible family trees that all claim to have ‘everything’.

For a second I feel ground beneath my feet when I see a careful, but effective tip on a beginner’s page that says that after typing a few magic words on Google that I will be blessed with family trees that could be related to me.

And yes, the family trees keep coming in and it suddenly seems as if everybody in Holland honoring their ancestors. After running into the same name in one document for the third time it starts dazzling me and I feel like I’m falling from the top of this rainforest all the way down.

With pretend distance I surf on the Net a few days later and land on a site ‘family histories’, where I find a picture if a man and a woman. Both in their thirties, looking at each other, while sitting around their kitchen table. They seem to be completely happy in peace. In the description beneath this picture it says that they do research in historical archives and do research for others as well. The hour rate is 25 Euro and ‘if we go to the archives for more then one person you pay half of that train ticket, second classes.

The “ultimate nerd” I conclude “with some influence from Zeeland. I would even leave illegal money with these people”. And they may know that as well. Well, not in these exact words, I’d like to get a good start.
Within 24 hours I get a response with the question if I want a ‘family tree investigation’ or a ‘Kwartierstraat (Quarter Street latterly translated)’
“Excuse me?”
I wait patiently so they can explain the ins and outs of this, including ‘the cold and warm side’.

“I’m only interested in the ancestors on my mother’s side with the same family name. But I also have a picture of a violinist….. And this one has different name: Croix. And if you find any exotic people here and there, that’s fine with me too.”

The clear assignment was born and could go any way. “I’m going to do research on Thursday in Harlem, is that Okay?” is the question. “Fine to me. I might also be there to pick up some skills first hand”. Not. I stayed home, at a safe distance.

Two months later on a Sunday night, I received e-mail. It takes a while to download. It turns out to be the final report. After an introduction it becomes clear to me that there haven’t been any ‘foreigners’ found. Often these kinds of stories belong to land of the family fairytales. “My family also has these kinds of stories”, he ads wisely and subtle. “But I did find a few strange characters in your family tree.”

“There is no way back” I concluded bravely: “Come on Alfredo, brave warrior” and by reading an enormous length of logistics, documents, pieces, summaries and codes, I did indeed discover some ‘prominent characters’.

Like a Pieter Du Crocq, who had been drawn a few times by an artist in Harlem, with a theatrical hat, long knee socks and slippers on his feet.
His son had, as a process server at the ‘Central Market’ and - "after loud trumpet blows" - announced a trial against a conman from up town. He had declared that in the trial would be demanded that the man would be punished by putting a "noose around his neck, standing on the platform and burning the initials TPF in his right shoulder".
That’s a little different from today’s punishment of picking up papers from the ground for a week, as a "task-punishment".

Another ancestor was missed by his family and an appeal to look for him was printed in the local newspaper in 1795 (!) where he was described in details. From other papers I could conclude that he was drowned in a canal in haarlem in the evening he left his house. Family and friends found him six weeks later. Poor Rochus Sebil.

Another ‘prominent character’, according to my researcher, had even more ruthless working methods. He díd have a connection to Napoleon, known as “The Greater Warrior” in the army, though my researcher was so kind to translate that for me and put ("headsman”) behind his name.



“Would I be able to undo a wish?” I though silently. “Would that help?”
My violinist gone, no Mediterranean blood what so ever, and an ancestor who served Napoleons army as a hangman (and whose family sign hangs on a golden necklace around my eldest daughters ballerina-neck)
Everything seems to fade away in this historical triangle. Nothing is what it seemed to be.


But this triangle turned out to have an inside… and thát side tells a whole different story about the lives of my ancestors.

There had been a small notebook found from 1816, where the hangman's cousin mentions him. He mentions his traveling trough Europe while in the army of Napoleon, along with his wife and children, who apparently could come with him. De writer appears to been with him.
He describes their journey to Amiens in France, where “child Helena” was born and was housed with a family member in 1811 in “The Hague, with mother's family, who died of whooping cough and was buried there.”

The suffering grows when “Maria Keppen” is born in 1813, “in Germany, in an area called Stettien at the river Ooder. We were surrounded by Pruysen and Russians, because we were still serving the French army. And this child was born when we hardly had any food supplies. We had to eat horse- and dog meat and that’s nothing, but I can’t tell everything that went on there. And that child stayed with my mother in Amsterdam where she grew older, died and was buried there.”

This document suddenly starts mentioning names of children around the battlefields of Napoleon.

Maria’s brother, “Matthijs”- is born during the battle at Waterloo in Mons (Belgium), “a place where we stayed at because we were part of the Lienje troops and this big city needed to stay free.”
The family now apparently fights against the French. I read somewhere that during that time, old war mates would run into each other at the battle fields and yell that they should come join the other side.


Napoleon made Europe into one big battle field and everybody had his own part in it.
Children are staying with family en despite that, they die.
People and animals die with hundreds, thousands at a time.

In the battle field against Russia millions of Russians die and from the 500.000 soldiers that Napoleon sent out only 17.000 return. During that return they could walk by the frozen bodies of there mates and say goodbye one last time.
Soldiers who Napoleon promised to become “rich and famous” to get them to go to war.

I can’t undo what’s in this notebook and the same goes for History. I can only discover, understand, and pass on. The only thing I could change was that “The Great Warrior” wasn’t in fact a butcher, but a head of a military court. “A typical internet mistake”, admits my researcher.

I also know too little about how en why people got into the army. I also don’t understand why Lodewijk, brother of Emperor Napoleon, is being mentioned “first king of Holland” and “His Highness” on the website of the Dutch parliament. In my eyes he’s nothing more then a substitute boss for a dictator from France.

“Are there any other ‘prominent characters’? I sort of ask myself.
Yes, because at the horizon I see a shadow of a woman rising.

Somebody sent me a document, which ‘had gotten it of somebody once’
I see that my mothers name coming up in the family tree around 1750. And I read in one of the original certificates that in 1790 a certain ‘Anna Kuyler’ is born in Harlem, "mother of an illegal child of an unknown man".
And that in Calvinistic Holland.

In the right lower corner I read the name and address from the writer and I decide to give the person unknown a call. I hear a male voice: “Yes, that must have been my wife. She’s been working on that for quite a while. And who are you?”
“I’m the son of… etc.”
“Oh, that sounds close related. We went to your mothers and fathers funeral. My wife is a half sister of your mother. “I didn’t even know she existed”, was my lame response.
“But I don’t think she interested anymore, but I’ll give her the message when she gets home.”

After a half hour my phone rings.
“Lydia Kuyler speaking”
“Well, I found a document of yours and that’s why I’m calling”. I tell her about my search, about my low results in the beginning and the things I did find later on, about the fact that I didn’t know that my mother had a half sister (twp even and two half brothers), the research that I had done, and about Anna Kuyler, who appeared out of nothing.

“Yes, Anna was a strong woman”, she says as if she knew her personally.
“She sure was”, I agree with excitement.
At the end she tells me that she is my only aunt still alive.
We decide to meet each other in January 2004 in Haarlem, now that we still can.


Again my eyes are attracted to the notes about this Anna Kuyler, “mother of an illegal child of an unknown man.” This child later became a shoe repairer and is one of my ancestors.
“What awful terms has mankind invented”, I think grimly.


Anna Kuyler lived with her mother for a while, who was a knitter for her profession,and ‘became a "shopkeeper in The Hagesteeg" and married when she was 34 to a greengrocer from her town. They have a baby, but when she’s 50 her husband dies.


But Anna is Anna and so she remarries when she’s 55 on 29th Febr. 1845 with "Gerrit History".
(Everybody had to think up a family name those days, as an order of Napoleon).
He had also lost his wife.
Her new husband doesn't live that long, and by now her signature – with a graceful A – is seen on numerable documents of relatives who marry, divorce, etc.
Anna was present everywhere.

Then, when Anna was 74 years of age, she dies “on March 2nd 1864 on the Vogelkopsteeg 15 at 1:00 P.M.”, says the coroners rapport, which was written by two coroners, who happened to be family members as well.

Her proud and elegant A – that even a goldsmith couldn’t have invented – rose high in my own battlefield of 8 months searching for ancestors, where there was no violinist to be seen, where stories collapsed, horrifying battles were fought, hunger and death ruled Europe and words as "illegal" were made by mankind to keep people like Anna at a distance.

She saw them all coming and going.
In January I’ll talk about her with my newly discovered aunt.
For the first time in thirty years back in Haarlem.



This search of mine for a shadowy ancestor had in the beginning still the traces of my mothers dramatic appeal, but in the process of research it became my very own journey, for me, for my children and no one else.

Alfredo,
Amsterdam. " End Quote.


Some names and data have been changed a little, for privacy reasons.

I hope it's not forbidden to post again that much.

I found out, that a familymember of an ancestor of mine, was "burried alive".


It is about 1575 and cities like Antwerpen and Doornick are being occupied by Spanish (catholic) armies.
While my ancestor Steven Janzen flees the enemy, Anneken is "burried alive" by the Spanish soldiers.

Her name is; Anneken van den Hoven
She lived and died in the 16th century ,around Antwerp (now in "Belgium").
She is named in a document of my ancestors, written in 1810. It's not for sure what her exáct relation was with the ancestors; Quote from document 1810; She was a "voordogter" = daughter from another marriage or relationship. one can make all kinds of speculations. Nothing is for sure.
Anneken was a radical protestant, like the Mennonites in the U.S.A. who feel very inspired by her.
Her name was written for this reason in "The Book of Martyrs".
One can find there a translation of what Anneken herself had written and confessed ánd what the author of the Martyr Book of 1631 wrote about her(there are many different editions of the Martyr book).

Here I quote the content from "the Martyrs Book of defenseless christians"- Anneken van den Hove Anno 1597.



"At Brussels, under the reign of the archduke Albert, there was apprehended for her faith and following Christ, a young maiden named Anneken van den Hove (being the servant maid of Nicolaes Rampaert's sister), having been betrayed, as it was said, by the pastor of the Savel church at Brussels.

This Anneken was imprisoned two years and seven months, in which time she suffered much temptation, from priests, monks, Jesuits and others, who thereby sought to make her apostatize from the faith she had accepted; but however great pains they took with her, in the way of examining, tormenting, fair promises, threats, long imprisonment, and otherwise, she nevertheless constantly remained steadfast in the faith in her Lord and Bridegroom, so that finally, on the ninth of July, 1597, certain Jesuits came and asked her whether she would suffer herself to be converted, for in that case she should be released and set at liberty. Thereupon she replied, "No." They then offered to give her six months more time for consideration; but she desired neither day nor time, but said that they might do what seemed good to them, for she longed to get to the place where she might offer up unto the Lord a sacrifice acceptable unto Him. This answer having been conveyed to the judges, information was brought her about two hours afterwards, that if she wanted to die, prepare herself, unless she wished to turn.

Hence the justice of the court, and also a few Jesuits, went out with her about eight o'clock, half a mile without the city of Brussels, where a pit or grave was made, while in the meantime she fearlessly undressed herself, and was thus put alive into the pit, and the lower limbs having first been covered with earth, the Jesuits who were present asked her whether she would not yet turn and recant? She said, "No;" but that she was glad that the time of her departure was so near fulfilled.
When the Jesuits then laid before her, that she had to expect not only this burying alive of the body into the earth, but also the eternal pain of the fire in her soul, in hell. She answered that she had peace in her conscience, being well assured that she died saved, and had to expect the eternal, imperishable life, full of joy and gladness in heaven, with God and all His saints.

Page 1094

In the meantime they continued to throw earth and (as has been stated to us) thick sods of heath ground upon her body, up to her throat; but notwithstanding all their asking, threatening, or promising to release her and take her out of the pit, if she would recant, it was all in vain, and she would not hearken to it.

Hence they at last threw much additional earth and sods upon her face and whole body, and stamped with their feet upon it, in order that she should die the sooner."


End printed story and quotations Anneken van den Hove in the Book of martyrs.

See for yourself, scroll a down at your screen, until the middle.
http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/martyrs159.htm#1093


and for the image;

http://www.bethelks.edu/mla/holdings/scans/martyrsmirror/mm%20bk2%20p793.jpg



Greetings from Amsterdam

hi alfredo
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as i said ive got back to 1700, but still not far enough to see if they are connected to the french revolution, and in what way.
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i was told that , my grt,grt,grt, grandfather was sir joshua wedgewood, of the wedgewood potteries, but cant connect with anything i have a the time,
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my scroll says that the name is also a version of delac, and delacey, both are in some way connected with arthur and the round table. but no indication if its to my side of the name or not jim

Well finally, some info that may help you

If you use Google (English), than you could do this, to find ancestor information that might be relevant for you.

You type Genealogy * familyname * and click at "search".

You can also mention first- and second name between * * and even make a combination with a town where they might have lived. That town you should be mentioned outside * * .


And don't forget, that names were also written as they were spooken before 1810 (in continental Europe), so they change remarkably in earlier days.
And in even earlier days they are just mentioned as "son of" in relation to their father's first name.


And there's a smart way of finding a specific name in very large documents at the internet.

When you have a document at your screen, click at the button Ctrl and the button f , and then you'll see suddenly a menu "searching" and when you write the name you're looking for, it can find it in a second - if it's there at all - by colouring that specific name dark blue.

Saves a lot of time when searching in genealogy sites that people make about their own families!

Of course you can use this method in all other sites too.

Read the First Reply to this Posting


You've got to push Ctrl and after that “ f” .

Digital information is far from reliable.

And I must admit; paper isn't always proof, but that's the human interest in life.
How, why?

By example; Hanneken v.d. Hoven who was burried alive, is described in the book of martyrs as a "helping hand" in the family. Most probbaly she was a child of a former marriage or a fruit of anyones sexual adventures.
Sudenly is a "helping hand" in thei house……

hi alfredo
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the scroll i have with my family plaque, as ten variations on my last name, all are french in origin.
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english main records only start at 1934, anything before are parish records, in some cases looking for a marriege in the 1700s or 1800s, they didnt register both the bands and marraige, as the cost was more for a marriage so its the bands we have to find.
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england, ireland, wales and scotland have some under the international geneology index.
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most records for ireland are gone, in disagreement on chatholic and prodistant, they distroyed as many registry office to stop anyone finding out what they where. lol jim