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Details of 1927 BC train robbery and murder of Dutch immigrant revisited
Victim Otto Bosch died in Vancouver hospital
Tags: Immigration Features History
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Back in 1992, almost 65 years after the July 23, 1927 murder of his then young bachelor uncle Otto Bosch, nephew Julius Bosch and his wife Beatrix (Ensel), stood at the Mountain View Cemetery graveside where the remains of his father Jan’s older brother had been buried. Puzzled why there was no sign of the headstone the family had paid for so long ago, he asked the attending cemetery employee where the grave marker could have gone. The man then poked around for it in the soil, and eventually hit something solid underneath. Soon, an overgrown vertical grave marker was uncovered from underneath a foot of dirt.
Windmill Archives launches Facebook group
Focus on Dutch immigration and settlement
Tags: Dutch Exploration Immigration Features World War II Genealogy History
The story of Dutch immigration to Canada and the United States and the settlement of these pioneers in both countries is wide-ranging and extremely fascinating. Since its start in 1970, The Windmill Archives has collected much material on these subjects.
New owners re-open Dutch specialty store to the sounds of rare street organ
Dutch treats popular with visitors
Tags: Excerpts from the Windmill Immigration Features History Dutch import groceries, delicatessen and household articles have been readily available in Chilliwack since the late 1950s. With the re-opening by new owners of an existing store as Holland Shopping Centre, the variety and product range increases s...
Chilliwack's topography honours pioneer farmer Volkert Vedder
Attracted from California by Cariboo goldrush
Tags: Excerpts from the Windmill Immigration Features HistoryThe most-widely known Dutch-descended people in Chilliwack were its earliest pioneers Volkert Vedder and his son Adam Swart Vedder who lent their surname to several geographical points: Vedder Mountain, Vedder Peak, Vedder Crossing, Vedder River and ...
Chilliwack, BC Dutch Count replaced by numerous immigrating countrymen
Gentleman farmer Van Rechteren returned 'home' in 1947
Tags: Excerpts from the Windmill Immigration Features World War II History
The fertile Upper Fraser Valley with Chilliwack as its hub, for many decades has been a destination for Dutch immigrants. It only was in the late 1940s that their numbers had grown into a small nucleus ready to receive and help settle a steady stream of newcomers. Its most prominent member, ‘the Count,' however just had retired to the Netherlands. The area attracted the biggest group during the first half of the 1950s when emigration from the Netherlands was at its strongest. Unlike most other areas in Canada, locally new Dutch arrivals kept coming in noticeable numbers into the 1990s (and beyond). By the late 1950s, the migration of Dutch immigrants from other areas in B.C., Alberta and beyond also helped swell the community's numbers.
The Van Echtens' expansion of local power-base took many generations
Founding of Hoogeveen-colony required fortune
Tags: Features
Contents of this Article
- Introduction
- Privileges gained
- Building churches
- Devastated by see-saw invasions
- No place in States-General
- Piet Hein's feat
- Squire Roelof
- Observer at Synod
- Drost
- Capital projects
- End of truce damaging
- Claiming and surrendering rights
- Show-down with merchants
- Acknowledgement from participants
- Tension among the participants
- Board of directors
- Interference and vandalism
- New participants
- Site of town
- Change of guard
- End of an era
- Politics and business
Six Municipalities Dealt with a Major Population Drain, Chain Effect Lasted for Decades
'Bouwhoek' Frisians Major Group in U.S.-bound Dutch Emigration
Tags: Features
DETROIT, Michigan - The Frisian 'Bouwhoek' - the Northern region behind the dikes of the Frisian Sea is known for its fertile clay and crop farming - has been a major contributor to the flow of Dutch emigrants to the United States. Thousands of Northern Frisians left in the latter part of the 19th century, when a depression hit the local economy. They opted for a better future in the New World. The emigration process was an ongoing phenomenon which lasted several decades and resulted in stagnating population figures, a recent study concludes. Emigrated Frisians from 'Bouwhoek' villages and municipalities often joined people from the same background and thus groups from particular townships settled together in specific New World localities. Numerous are the seasonal labourers from Frisian crop farms who became prosperous farmers in the New World, Annemieke Galema reports in her new book 'Frisians to America, 1880-1914.'
December 5th national birthday for everyone’s friend from Spain
The Netherlands helps Sint Nicolaas celebrate
Tags: Features
AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands - For centuries in the Netherlands, the 6th of December - and for the grown-ups especially the evening of the 5th - has been a day when nearly everyone is at home, celebrating the birthday of Sint Nicolaas, the kind Spanish bishop. Every year, Sint Nicolaas (also known as Sinterklaas) makes the trip to Holland to celebrate his birthday. He has been doing this for ages, not to receive presents, but to give them, especially to the children.
Frisian town welcomes ‘Sinterklaas’ in February
Local tradition kept away from limelight
Tags: Features
GROU, the Netherlands - While North Americans get a visit from Saint Nick in the weeks ending with Christmas, the figure on whom Santa Claus is based - St. Nicolaas - visits the Low Lands on December 5th and 6th. Except in the small Frisian village of Grou, where Saint Nicholas’ ‘cousin’ Saint Peter makes his annual visit on February 21. Confused? Here is the story about ’Sint Piter’.
Toponymy in the Netherlands (2)
Dutch territory extends itself from Babylonia to California, a fascinating case of adopting identities for communities
Tags: Features
Over the centuries, the Dutch have used foreign names and situations to give new frontier settlements a unique identity, often one with a specific connotation. There are names suggesting a biblical origin or indicating the geographical roots of its founders or settlers. Others just refer to some foreign city, region or country. The New World - the Americas - is rife with such Old Country references, beginning with Nieuw Netherland and New England, names still used today. More surprising is that the 'old country' has a number of villages named after American geographical names. While European names prevail in the list of 'foreign names' used in the Netherlands, some clearly have connections with the U.S.A.
Toponymy in the Netherlands (1)
Communities adopted names from Nil to No End, a case of numericals in Dutch place names
Tags: Features
Where do place names originate from? Many people will wonder about it, but few will bother to find out for themselves. It takes dedicated historians and genealogists to research the matter. What about such place names as Heerlen, Doetinchem, Zwolle and Groningen? While, many towns and villages in the country have identities that are linked to nearby geographical features, a few hundred places have an origin tied to a number. So named perhaps from the way a particular settlement - mostly because of its number of huizen (houses) - was known to folks down the 'road.'
New biography about Holland's founder
Dutch Emigrants Built 'City' in Dense Michigan Forest
Tags: Features
One hundred and fifty years ago, Dutch emigrants without any experience descended on Michigan's frontiers and literally carved a living out of its dense forests. Among the logs and huge tree trunks they planted the roots of what was to become a city. The initial party of a few hundred people which set to clear Holland's town site, hardly knew how to swing an axe, fall a tree or clear land. Neither could they build basic log cabins fast enough to accommodate themselves or the stream of new arrivals. Life in the 'kolonie' Holland was extremely hard, while food, medicine and money was very scarce and disease at times rampant in the isolated community near Black Lake, just off the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
The marriages of seven Dutch monarchs
A review of House of Orange history since 1791
Tags: Features
Crown Prince Willem-Alexander as successor to the Dutch throne is the seventh monarch to enter marriage since his ancestor Prince Willem of Orange Nassau (1772-1843) tied the knot with Princess Frederika Louise Wilhelmina of Prussia in 1791. The son of Stadtholder Prince Willem V, he and his family lived in exile for nearly twenty years while the French under Napoleon occupied the country. Upon the return of Prince Willem VI at the beaches of Scheveningen in 1814, the Dutch led by statesman Gijsbert Karel Van Hogendorp instituted a constitutional monarchy headed by the House of Orange Nassau. Willem assumed the throne as King Willem I. From 1559 to 1795, the House gave - much of the country - an appointed leader who served as Stadtholder (Commander-in Chief and Governor) although two lengthy hiatus occurred during that period.