thoughts of the week

no followers yet?!  Hmmm, that’s ok, I’ve been busy anyway searching, reading, translating and b(u)ilding a tree…

btw                  >Happy New Year!<               >Bonne Année!< 

              >Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!<         >Frohes Neues Jahr!<

     back to my thoughts of the past and present: I am quite content to have found kindred spirits with the same last name; perhaps some distant cousins but nevertheless relations. Since childhood I thought I was the last one with this name. No siblings. And of course, my Dad did not know that he had cousins on his father’s side. All he knew that ‘de Bilde’ was a rare name originating in Zeeland. He was only thirteen when his parents, my grandparents divorced in 1934!

     Just a little over a year ago I learned my grandfather’s name. He was never spoken of, so I didn’t know and I didn’t ask. I had no grandfather on either side of the family – my mother’s father is another story some other time. It was quite by accident that I found out about my grandfather. Initially I did some research for my mother that was fruitless and frustrating to say the least because her maiden name might as well be the most common name in the world: Schulz!! There are millions of them and hundreds if not thousands named Hans Schulz which was my grandfather’s without a middle name. So I pretty much had to disappoint her but I haven’t given up yet on my German side.

     While sticking my curious nose into genealogy research I ventured to the Dutch side, after all I was born in Nederland. I once was a Nederlands meisje!! And while finding and signing up with all these fascinating websites I was contacted by a Dutch genealogist [insert name here] who turned out to be a 2^nd cousin – his grandfather and my grandmother were siblings, we share the same great-grandparents!!

     That was it, I was hooked on genealogy. I love to read and I am fascinated with historical facts especially if I can relate them to my ancestry research. I also love pouring over maps, old and new, where my photographic memory comes in handy. Last but not least I like linguistics and semiotics (the study of the relationship between symbology and language). All this encompasses the intellectual excitement of my detective work in the research of my last name.

     To brush up on my history I just read “by pike and dyke: a tale of the rise of the Dutch Republic” which told about the struggle of Holland and Zeeland against Spain during prince William’s of Orange time in the late 1500s. The Dutch called William also Willem de Zwijger. A fascinating account of the Dutch/Flemish peoples and the Zeelanders against a common foe, their tenacity, ingenuity and seafaring abilities left an impression of revere. Holland, Zeeland and especially Flanders have been major battlegrounds since the Middle Ages for their strategic locations. Flanders was eventually recovered by Spain in the late 1500s and continued under the Spanish rule until 1714, when the Peace of Utrecht awarded it to Austria. Parts of West Flanders were annexed to France and became known as French Flanders. Austria ceded the remainder of Flanders to France in 1797, but the Congress of Vienna awarded the former Austrian Flanders to the Netherlands. Yikes,

     And somewhere in that history I traced my line of ancestors to Laurentius de Bilde born March 26, 1708 in Beveren-Waas (Oost Vlaanderen) and he may not be the progenitor?!  The line continues even further than the early 1700s and I am searching for the records of his father Adrianus …




notes: do you have corrections and/or more information for my blog? please leave a comment so I may contact you ...
thanks to all who have helped and contributed to my quest so far especially [insert]