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Daniel of Doulogos Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
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Tuesday, October 11, 2005
What it means to be Dutch.
My Father's family came from the province of North Brabant (it was once a duchy) in Holland.

The province is divided into very small townships/municipalities and my ancestors lived (at separate times) in three such townships: Helmond, Asten, and Someren. Asten and Someren border one another east to west (Someren on the west), both border with Helmond to the north. All three townships combined would fit into a circle ten miles across.

To give some perspective to this - that means that for somewhere around 20 generations my ancestors lived and died within ten miles of where they were born.

My lineage is nothing special:

Myself (Daniel) Born in 1966,
the son of Franciscus (1947),
son of Franciscus (1920),
son of Marinus (1888),
son of Johannes (1863),
son of Johannes (1824),
son of Lambertus (1800),
son of Lambertus (1774),
son of Franciscus (1738),
son of Lambertus (1691),
son of Walraven (1656),
son of Johannes (1615),
son of Walraven (1590),
son of Jan (1556),
son of Lambert (1505),
son of Walravens (1465),
son of Meeus (1435),
son of Arnt (1400),
son of Henric (1365),
son of Wouter (1335),
son of Wouter (?).

As you can see my ancestral line gets hazy before 1335, which makes a lot of sense, since Holland's history prior to that is likewise hazy.

Apparently the names, Lambert(us), Walraven(s), Johannes, and Franciscus were favourites of my ancestors - I would have been Franciscus myself except my mother didn't want me to have a Dutch name. Daniel Boone happened to be on television at the time they were thinking of names for me - and well, that is my own ignoble start to life.

If showing people your photo albums is boring - showing people your family tree is even more boring. I mean I am practically falling asleep typing this thing up.

The worst part is that my dad always told me that there were some interesting things in our family history. He spoke of pirates and Spanish princesses. I think the story goes thus: somewhere in our family tree someone (a pirate no doubt) kidnapped a Spanish princess on the high seas. The princess was either ransomed back or became an unwilling participant in my family tree - the details were always obscure. After all my effort however, I haven't found any such thing. Just a bunch of peasants living in obscurity for twenty generations.

On my mother's side there is also supposed to be pirates - arrrrrr! I confess however, I haven't done the homework. Let's just say that I am satisfied to believe that there are pirates. If I don't do the homework I won't have to find out that for twenty generations on my mom's side they Iikewise lived and died within spitting distance of where they were born.
posted by Daniel @ 4:19 PM  
9 Comments:
  • At 10:16 PM, October 11, 2005, Blogger Dan said…

    That's really cool! I don't know anyone that can trace their lineage back that far! :-) Do you know anything of them other than their name and location? (Maybe an occupation?) How did you ever pick Winnepeg after so many generations within bicycle distance of each other in Holland?

    My background is Scandinavian, so I've always heard that there is a viking or two in my background, but likewise, I've never seen any evidence of it.

     
  • At 10:43 PM, October 11, 2005, Blogger Daniel said…

    My great grandfather moved to the municipality of Geldrop-Mierlo - perhaps 50 miles away from the triad of townships where the family used to live. My grand father was born in the town of Mierlo, and when world war II came along he found himself moved yet again to the municipality of Eindhoven. My father was born at the close of the war (1947). In the 1950's it looked like another world war was eminent so my grandfather determined to leave holland for the US. There is a post about that whole affair here.

    I believe that had there been no world war my grandfather would have lived in Mierlo all his life - and I wouldn't be here.

    In a weird way, I have WWII to thank for my ever having been born.

    I know most of their "birth/death dates" at least back to around 1600 or so, then the birth dates are just years. Marriage dates, names of wifes and children etc. A few notes if the person was exceptional in some way that would show up on a town registry (a constabulary, a mayor, etc.) But that is about it. The occasional story or two, but nothing too great.

     
  • At 2:15 AM, October 12, 2005, Blogger bp said…

    I can trace my tree pretty far; I seemed to find the name Yohan a lot on my mom's side. I have some interesting stories about a few of my ancestors, sometime I will write a post about them. I don't know if I have any pirates in the tree, though I wish I did.

     
  • At 9:09 AM, October 12, 2005, Blogger Brad Williams said…

    We can't really do our lineage on my father's side. We came from Native American ancestory on that side. (Of course, you can always branch off and follow the woman's line when it dead ends, but if you do that you are kin to almost everyone.) My grandfather's name was Nokomis, which he hated because he said it was a girl's name. His father's name was Powhatan. My name was going to be Powhatan, but my mother flipped out about it. Instead, I'm John Williams. John Williams! Can you get any more boring than that?

     
  • At 3:05 PM, October 12, 2005, Blogger Bryan said…

    All that Dutch, yet not in a Reformed Church ;)

    Bryan
    SDG

     
  • At 1:57 AM, October 13, 2005, Blogger Michael said…

    Wow!That's amazing that you can trace your lineage to 1335! And having pirates mixed in there is very cool.

    All I know about my lineage are the vague stories my family tell. Legend has it that I'm a decendant of vikings, a guy that had a ticket on the titanic (but traded it to someone for an earlier trip), there are claims that I've got Native American back there somewhere (but looking in the mirror at my viking likeness I don't believe it) and of course I'm related to Bigfoot too. Its all true of course say my grandparents.

     
  • At 7:23 AM, October 13, 2005, Blogger CSB said…

    I am one hudred percent english. Full bred. Period.

     
  • At 8:56 AM, October 13, 2005, Blogger Daniel said…

    Taco - The really interesting part isn't so much the names and the dates, it is the locations and the events. Being able to trace the movement of your family over 20 generations is pretty cool. In my case that movement was south about ten miles, then east about five miles. Okay, so that isn't very exciting per se, but the names aren't either - they start to have no meaning about four generations in.

    Never the less, I would like to trace it farther back - find out who Wouter's (Walter's?) dad was etc.

    James - English eh? I had an English room-mate once - he was related to the queen somehow - his mother received enough money to live on because of it, and he knew that as soon as his mother passed on (he being an only son) the stipand would become his. It really shaped the way he prepared for later life. While the rest of us were trying to find marketable skills, he was waiting around for dear old "momsy" to die.

    I really should blog about him, he was quite a character. He set his bed up directly under a single pane window, blocked off the only heat register in his bedroom with a massive and ornate wardrobe, then slept under a single linen sheet (he was too cultured to use blankets apparently) - then shiver all night and complain that the heat was turned on enough. Don't even get me started on his spending habits - he would buy anything that was imported from England. He used to eat Highland oat cakes - he hated them - but they were good English provinder, and thus fit for his delicate constitution.

    Thankfully I know a couple of other Englishmen who are not so fancy, or I might have a skewed opinion of what it means to be 100% English. ;)

     
  • At 7:54 AM, May 15, 2007, Blogger 4given said…

    I'm a mutt... so I find this stuff even more interesting. Though being of a mutt lineage, I have a wide variety of family history to choose from. Such as my paternal grandfather of Denmark named Jens Christian Nielsen (apparently somehow related to Hans Christian Anderson) and my paternal grandmother... a spitfire Cajun that made the best jambalaya this side of the Mississippi... but then, don't cross that woman. As for my maternal side, there appears to be a lot of Irish blood... and a bunch of alcoholics.
    My husband is about 3/4 German and 1/4 Cherokee... very handsome, hard-working but layed back kinda guy.

     
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