Godparent-child ties

One thing that annoys me in genealogy research is the focus on parent-child relationships to build a family tree. There are many more types of ties: neighbors or coworkers, for instance, or friends (and foes!). As these things go, curiosity got the better of me: what if I were to create a “family tree” using…

Starting a New Job

In November I started with a new job, a PhD at the Netherlands Demographical Institute (NIDI). Hermen Hermens Boschman, my mothers’ mothers’ mothers’ mothers’ fathers’ mothers mothers’ father, made a similar fresh start during the early 18th century. As the documents I recently uncovered in the archives match my current life very well, this seems…

Dutch Historical Regions

Whereas it might be difficult to split other countries into smaller regions, the Netherlands are neatly split into NUTS 2 regions (provinces) and NUTS 3 regions (COROP areas), which makes it easier for researchers to compare different parts of the country. In other countries such regions are not available, which poses a challenge to researchers:…