What's In A (Dutch) Name?

Elizabeth, William, Frederic, Margaret, Jasper, Cornelis, Louisa, Barend . . . Jacques.

There are multiple examples of each of these names in our family tree, except the last one. (More about that later.) "Elizabeth" has given us those nicknamed Lijsje, Liz, Lizzie, Beth, Betty, and Betsy. "William" has given us a Bill, Billy, Will. "Frederic" has given us more than one Fred and Freddie, and on the other side of the Atlantic, at least one Freek (pronounced "Frake.") Margaret and its Dutch version Margriet have given us Marg, Marge, Mardi, Peg, Greet, and Grietje. And so on.

Grandma Elizabeth's Family ca. 1903

Dutch naming customs were so stable in earlier times that you could almost predict at a wedding how the couple's children would be named. The first son would generally be named after the paternal grandfather, the first daughter after the paternal or maternal grandmother, depending on the custom of the particular region. With the arrival of the next child, it was the turn of the other side of the family. The third and fourth children were thus often given the names of the grandparents who had not yet been named. Later children were named after aunts and uncles on either side of the family. An exception to alternation of the two sides of the family was that upon the death of a child, the next one born was often named after the recently deceased child.

Grandpa VandenBergh (Barend, here labeled ("Pop") and family ca. 1910

My grandparents, Elizabeth Daams and Barend Vanden Bergh, followed a modified version of these old Dutch naming customs. I see from the names in the two photos above that they named all eight of their children after their own siblings, i.e., after the children's aunts and uncles. At least some of these names also corresponded to grandparents' names. As was typical as well, sometimes the gender of the name was changed to fit the gender of the child; for example Cornelis to Cornelia.

So much for first names (voornaam in Dutch). At this point you may be wondering who was the Jacques in the family tree and why he was given a French first name. He was the son of our first Dutch ancestor to settle in the New World (Nieuw Nederland)  --  Cornelis Van Slyck. Cornelis married a Mohawk woman named Otstoch, from the Mohawk "castle" or stockaded village about 50 miles west of the settlement at Fort Orange.

Family legend tells us that Otstoch was the daughter of the French coureur des bois, Jacques Hertel, and one confirmation of this hypothesis is the fact that Cornelis and Otstoch named their second son Jacques, presumably after his maternal grandfather. (A first son, Cornelis, is only mentioned in the records once or twice; perhaps he died at a young age.)

Jacques almost certainly had a Mohawk name as well, but after spending his childhood in Canajoharie, he settled in Schenectady with his father. And so the Dutch knew him by his French first name, or an adaptation thereof, "Ackes," since the initial consonant in "Jacques" does not exist in Dutch. Indeed, upon his deathbed, he signed his will "Ackes."

In earlier eras, the Dutch commonly also used a patronymic, a name derived from the father's name, as a second or middle name. Thus Jacques Cornelissen Van Slyck would have been this ancestor's full name. The patronymic suffix zoon (son) was often abbreviated as sen or simply sz.

Prior to the French occupation of the Netherlands (1810 - 1813, during the Napoleonic Era), custom rather than law dictated what people could call themselves. But when the civil register was introduced in 1811, births, marriages, and deaths had to be recorded in this register, and people had to choose family names, rather than simply use a first name and patronymic. Most family names were based either on one's occupation (e.g., Bakker, Schipper, Bleeker) or place of origin (Vanden Bergh, Van Breuckelen). But on a yellowed piece of paper that I found in my mother's old Dutch-English dictionary, I came across a list of quirky last names that she had jotted down:

- Blijleven  =  happy life

- Blikenstoffer  =  dustpan and brush

- Zevenhuizen  =  seven houses

- Zoetemelk  =  sweet milk

- Zeldenrijk  =  seldom rich

- Bril  =  spectacles (i.e., glasses)

These names were perhaps told to her by her cousin Jasper, as examples of unusual names that Dutch people chose in protest against the new naming rules and perhaps indirectly, against the the occupation itself. Indeed, although churches had been registering baptisms and marriages since at least the 16th century, most of these church records were confiscated by the state in 1811, ostensibly to form the basis for the new civil registry, but perhaps also as a convenient source of information for the Napoleonic conscription.

Along with the civil register came new laws for first names as well, also based on French law. These rules generally limited names to those on the calendar of saints' days and names from ancient history, including Biblical names. This law remained in effect until 1970, and nowadays popular international names join traditional Dutch voornamen on the list of the most commonly given first names in the Netherlands. Thus, popular boys' names are Daan, Bram, and Lucas; girls may be Emma, Sophie, Julia or Anna.

So, what's in a Dutch name? A liberal dose of history and genealogy , as well as an identifying or endearing moniker.

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Sources:

Gerritzen, Doreen. De naamwet. http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/voornamen/naamwet.html ; accessed 1/27/2013.

Gerritzen, Doreen. De naamwet vroeger. http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/voornamen/vroeger.html ; accessed 1/27/2013. 

Gerritzen, Doreen. Geschiedenis van de Nedelandse naamgeving. http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/voornamen/geschiedenis.html ; accessed 1/27/2013

(The above articles were written by a researcher at the Meertens Institute, which focuses on ethnological study and the linguistic study of the Dutch language.)

List of popular Dutch names from "Dutch Daily News": http://www.dutchdailynews.com/daan-and-emma-most-popular-dutch-baby-names-again/

See also "Trace Your Dutch Roots," http://www.traceyourdutchroots.com for information about the civil register and early church records, as well as tips about Dutch genealogy research.

Kerrysoep van witte boonen

Although winter is winding down here in Upstate New York, it is still good soup weather. I found an intriguing recipe in Grandma VandenBergh's 1922 Dutch cookbook, and craving something warm and savory, I decided to try it out:

Curry bean soup ingredients

Curry Soup with White Beans

- 250 gr. (1/2 pound) white beans
- 2 liters (approx. 2 quarts) water
- 1/2 teaspoon curry
- "a piece of mace"  (I used a half teaspoon)
- 7 1/2 gr. (1 1/2 teaspoon) salt
- 1 medium onion
- 20 gr. (2 tablespoons) whole wheat flour
- 30 gr. (2 tablespoons) butter

Wash the beans and soak them overnight in the water.
The next day, cook the beans in the same water, adding the salt and mace. Simmer for about 2 hours.
In a separate pan, melt the butter and add the flour, the chopped onion, and the curry.
Do not overcook; take care that the mixture remains light yellow.
Slowly pour in the liquid with the beans; let cook through about 10 minutes.

The recipe suggests that you pour the soup through a strainer or sieve so that the bean husks and onion are strained out, before serving with croutons. But I served as is, with all the beans and chopped onions. That seemed to turn out okay, and it contained more fiber than if it had been strained.

Curry and white bean soup

The two spices used to flavor this soup are curry and mace. But strictly speaking, curry is not a spice; it's a mixture that may contain as many as a dozen different herbs and spices. The variety I bought in my local gourmet spice shop contains turmeric, coriander, cumin, cardamom, fenugreek, ginger, nutmeg, fennel, cinnamon, black and white pepper, cloves, saffron [I was surprised to learn that this comes from a species of crocus], and cayenne pepper. In spite of the inclusion of this last, this curry powder is not too spicy, but if I unscrew the cap and take a whiff, its perfume is redolent of outdoor markets in Goa or Mumbai.

The other spice cited in this recipe is mace, which is the dried seed coat of the nutmeg nut. It has a much stronger flavor than the nut itself; the label on my jar indicates that a quarter teaspoon of mace is equivalent to a teaspoon of nutmeg. And indeed, when I added the mace to the soup, a pungent aroma filled the kitchen.

Nutmeg and mace inhabit a notorious niche in Dutch history. Have you ever heard of the Spice Islands? Now known as the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, this group of islands in the Indonesian archipelago was once the only source of nutmeg and mace. Through the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch), the Dutch gained control of the islands in the 17th century, and forcibly attained a monopoly on the trade in nutmeg, mace, and cloves.

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To learn more about the history of the islands, including a series of historical maps, visit the Web site about the Spice Islands maintained by the Princeton University Library at: http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/spice-islands/spice-islands-maps.html .


Dutch vocabulary:

boter  =  butter
foelie  =  mace
kerry (modern spelling - kerrie)  =  curry
tarwemeel  =  whole wheat flour
ui  =  onion
witte boonen  =  white beans
zout  =  salt

On the River Bank

The other day I stood near the bank of the Mohawk River, a few feet from where my long-ago ancestor Jacques Van Slyck lived and ran his tavern, the first such establishment in the village of Schenectady. A massive gnarled oak tree marks the spot where Jacques may have set out by canoe to his farm on Van Slyck Island. Or perhaps he even walked across the frozen river on a blustery and raw February day such as today.

This peaceful spot is also near where on a cold February night 323 years ago, a raiding party from Canada crept across the frigid landscape, entered the sleeping settlement through an opening in the stockade, and nearly destroyed the town and its inhabitants.

Now the neighborhood children ride their bicycles up and down the narrow streets and lanes, play pirates on the river bank, or climb the ancient oak that stands silent as a sentinel at water’s edge.

That night the lanes echoed with war whoops and the agonized cries of the wounded and dying. Homes were torched, and those defending their property and families were cut down or taken prisoner. One man, a certain Symon Schermerhorn, took advantage of the chaos to leap onto his horse and flee the carnage, riding for hours through the snowy pine bush to warn the larger settlement at Albany.

Who were the attackers? A group of about 200 French soldiers and their Iroquois and Algonquin allies, known as “praying Indians,” for having been converted by Jesuit missionaries. They had marched from Montreal seventeen days earlier, with orders to attack Schenectady and to “burn the place.”

Attacking shortly before midnight on the night of February 8, 1690, the invading force was in control of the village within two hours, having slaughtered 60 men, women, and children, and leaving only a handful of houses standing.

The French and Indians eventually retreated north, leaving the town in ruins, and taking 27 captives with them, many of whom were later ransomed.

This bloody attack was one episode in what became known as King William’s War, a part of the struggle between England and France for hegemony in North America.

As the Indian allies of the French were familiar with the residents of Schenectady who had Mohawk connections, none of the Van Slycks, Van Olindas, or others with family ties to the Mohawks, were killed or taken captive in the raid. But Jacques did not survive for long afterward; he died in Albany in May of that year.

The spot along the river is peaceful and quiet 300 years later. Gray slabs of ice lie helter-skelter along the river’s edge, where the water has frozen, thawed, and refrozen. In the spring and summer, there will be picnics in the riverside park and boats plying the water. Waterfowl will make their voices heard, or glide silently through the waves.

The early carnage is largely forgotten now, except by history buffs like me. But I can’t help thinking: If the war party had bypassed Schenectady and attacked Albany instead -- which was their original plan  -- I might be writing this blog en français. 

 

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Sources: 

Burke, Thomas E., Jr., Mohawk Frontier: The Dutch Community of Schenectady, New York, 1661-1710. Albany, NY. : State University of New York Press. 1991.

Staffa, Susan J. Schenectady Genesis: How a Dutch Colonial Village Became an American City, ca. 1661-1800. Vol. 1; Fleischmanns, NY: Purple Mountain Press. 2004.


For more about Jacques Van Slyck's death and deathbed will, see: "In den Name Godes -- Amen".

February 10, 1868

February 10, 1868  --  that's the birth-date of my great-grandmother Kittie Van Slyke Fineour. She was probably born at home in the Van Slyke house along the Erie Canal in Mindenville, where her father Jonas was the lock tender. Kittie was the eldest of Jonas and Margaret's four children: Kittie, Minnie, Mary (also called Matie), and George ("Georgie"). In the 1880 census, where I found the family listed, the census taker misspelled her name as "Caty." I suppose that "Kittie" was an unusual enough name for him to make that error. 

The listing also includes Kittie's grandparents, David D. Van Slyke and Sally (Moyer) Van Slyke.

We have a couple of tintypes of Kittie as a child. In this image of Kittie as a toddler, she sits upright on the photographer's large leather chair, looking directly into the camera. She appears to be impressed by the experience, but it is difficult to fathom whether her expression is one of apprehension, defiance, or determination. Her apparel and hairdo are reminiscent of the porcelain dolls of that era (circa 1870); indeed she does look quite like a little doll.

Kittie - toddler, ca. 1869

Not much later, at two years old, Kittie looks less impressed by her visit to the photographer's studio. She is posed less formally and looks confidently into the camera. She appears to be wearing the same white bead necklace as in the earlier picture.

Kittie at age 2

We also have a number of images of her as a young woman. Below is one of my favorites. Kittie is posed in the photographer's studio, wearing a fancy pleated dress, a curly hairdo, and a dreamy expression.

Early tintype of Kittie

A tintype of her father Jonas probably from the same era shows us a distinguished-looking man with a beard, dressed in a dark three-piece suit. The serious, almost somber expression was probably the result of having to sit so still and hold the same expression long enough for the image to be produced on the metal plate. Incidentally, "tintype" is a misnomer; the plates are really iron, so the images are more accurately called ferrotypes. *

Jonas Van Slyke - tintype

In honor of Kittie's birthday, I made coconut drop cookies, or macaroons, from a recipe in Grandma Minnie's handwritten cookbook:

Here is how I modernized the recipe a bit:

Coconut Drops

- 2 egg whites
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease cookie sheet.

Whisk together egg whites, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and almond extract until well blended and egg whites are frothy.

Fold in shredded coconut.

Using a tablespoon or a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop the mixture onto the greased baking sheet.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until light brown on top.

Cool on a wire rack and serve. Here they are, toasty, tasty, and warm  --  a sweet treat for a birthday or any day:

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* See www.phototree.com/history.htm for additional information about the history of tintypes and other early forms of photography.

Worteltjes en Spruitjes

This week two vegetable dishes from Grandma VandenBergh's 1922 Dutch cookbook:

The Dutch word wortel means root or carrot; add the diminutive suffix -tje -- worteltje, and we would translate this into English as "baby carrots."

Wortel has an English cousin  --  wort, in Middle English, which also means root or plant, as in St. John's wort or liverwort. If you are not familiar with these plant names, you will certainly recognize another English language cousin: try repeating the words "wort yard" rapidly ten times in a row, and you will probably end up saying "orchard," which means literally, "plant yard."*

Likewise, the Dutch word spruit is easily identified with its English language cousin "sprout" ; add the diminutive suffix -tje again and you have "little sprout," or what we call in English Brussels sprouts. As the name indicates, this leafy green vegetable may have originated in Belgium, from whence it spread of course to the Netherlands. It is related to cabbage and broccoli, and in fact, the little green spheres do look like baby cabbages. I have to confess that as I child I particularly detested Brussels sprouts, but now I do like the nutty flavor of fresh (and freshly steamed) sprouts. Fresh is definitely better than canned!

The two recipes require few ingredients and little fuss:

Worteltjes

Worteltjes (Baby Carrots)

- 1 large bunch small carrots
- 30 grams (2 tablespoons) butter or margarine
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 3 grams (1/2 teaspoon) salt

Scrape the carrots, wash them, and set them in a small amount of boiling water (The cookbook says an amount that will boil away in about 30 minutes, but I would say that 15- to 20 minutes is sufficient).
Toss the carrots a few times to brown them. Stir in the butter or margarine and simmer a few more minutes.
Add the finely chopped parsley and stir before serving.

Spruitjes

Spruitjes (Brussels sprouts)

- 1 kilogram (2 pounds) Brussels sprouts
- 5 grams (1 teaspoon) salt
- 40 grams (3 tablespoons) butter

Wash the sprouts and set them in salted boiling water (or steam in a steamer).
Simmer (or steam) for about half an hour, and then drain and stir in the butter.

If I would change this recipe at all, I would use half the salt called for, and cook the sprouts for no longer than 20 minutes. Boiling them for too long will not only destroy the delicate nutty flavor, but also some of the vitamins (Vitamins A and C, and folic acid).

Eet smakelijk! Enjoy your meal.


Dutch vocabulary:

worteltjes (n.)  =  baby carrots
spruitjes (n.)  =  Brussels sprouts
boter (n.)  = butter
peterselie (n.)  =  parsley
zout (n.)  =  salt
schrapen (v.)  =  to scrape
stoven (v.)  =  to simmer, stew

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*The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition; Houghton-Mifflin, 2006.

Yearning To Know

"Some people flee their ancestors, while others yearn for them, almost viscerally," says a character in Eduardo Halfon's recently translated work, The Polish Boxer.

I've been writing this blog about my ancestors and the foods they ate for two years now, and have completed 101 posts. There is still much I yearn to know about my forebears. When I peer at old photographs or tintypes, I yearn to know what they were thinking and feeling. What were their hopes and desires, their aspirations and their fears? Would they be similar to mine? If I were able to travel back in time and meet my ancestors on the street, would I recognize them? Would they care to meet me? If so, what would we say to each other?

An 1895 class photo shows my grandmother Elizabeth as a scowling nine-year-old (top row, center) in the village of Loosdrecht in the Netherlands: I yearn to know what made her frown like that. Was it merely the sun in her eyes, or a scolding from the schoolmeester? What other Daams siblings and cousins pose along with Grandma?

Loosdrecht school photo, ca. 1895

Five years later, as a domestic servant for a wealthy family, Elizabeth posed with her sister Hendrina. How did they get along? Did they gossip about their employers?

Hendrina and Elizabeth ca. 1900

When Elizabeth married in 1911, did her family know that she and her bridegroom Barend were planning to leave for America the next day?

Listing of marriage in family booklet

On the other side of the family, I yearn to know more about my great-grandmother Kittie Van Slyke, the canal locktender's eldest daughter, in Mindenville, NY in the 1870's: Did she go to school? Until what grade? She married my great-grandfather when she was only sixteen years old. Was it a love match? What did her parents think?

Kittie and Fred - damaged tintype

How large a town was Mindenville in those days? It is only a handful of houses now, as the old canal lock tended by my great-great-grandfather Jonas Van Slyke is long gone; a few feet away is an old cemetery, no longer used, where many Van Slyke ancestors are buried.

How was the family prosperous enough in those days 140 years ago to be able to afford periodic trips to a photographer's studio to have tintype portraits made of so many family members?

Nancy Fineour Smith (Kittie's sister-in-law?)

What happened to Kittie's youngest sister Mary (called Matie), that she died before she turned fifteen?

Kittie's sisters - Matie and Minnie

Who arranged Kittie's hair so elaborately in the various portraits she had taken during her young adulthood?

Great-grandma Kittie - undated photograph

One tintype shows her with a decidedly modern Dutch bob that predates the 1920's  --  when this "helmet hair" was popularized by silent movie star Louise Brooks  --  by several decades.

Kittie - with "helmet hair"

Who was Alix Van Slyke, and how was he related to my direct ancestors? (Notice how his tintype was hand-colored by the photographer. I think he looks like Edgar Allan Poe in this picture.)

Alix Van Slyke (Kittie's uncle?)

I could go on  --  there is still so much I would like to know. Some questions can be answered with further research, but I may never know what the people portrayed in these old photos were thinking and feeling . . .unless some day I discover an old diary . . . !

Oliebollen

"What's in these?" asked my son as I set the plate of fried dough balls on the table.

"Raisins, chopped apple, brown sugar, cinnamon, and whole wheat flour," I answered. "It's an old recipe from my Grandma's Dutch cookbook."

The oil balls, as the Dutch word is literally translated, were a tasty but doughy snack, and sprinkled with confectioner's sugar, they quickly disappeared from the plate. Here's a translation of the original recipe from Grandma Vanden Bergh's 1922 copy of Eenvoudige Berekende Recepten:

Oliebollen

- 250 grams (2 cups) whole wheat flour
- 20 grams yeast (1 packet)
- about 2 1/2 dL. (1 cup) warm milk
- 50 grams (1/3 cup) currants
- 50 grams (1/3 cup) raisins
25 grams (scant 1/4 cup) candied fruit peel
- 2 grams (1/3 teaspoon) salt
- juice of half a lemon
- vegetable oil for frying

Dissolve the yeast in 2 tablespoons warm milk.
Make a stiff batter (thicker than for "Three in the Pan") with the flour, the rest of the warm milk, currants, raisins, and candied fruit peel, the lemon juice, salt and yeast mixture.
Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise for an hour.

Heat enough oil in a wok or deep-fryer pot to deep-fry the balls of dough. Using two spoons, form the dough into balls and carefully drop into the hot oil.
Fry until light brown; the dough balls are done when a toothpick poked into the center of the pastry comes out clean.

Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.
Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and serve.

My modern Dutch cookbook, Deliciously Dutch, has a similar recipe, which adds orange zest, sugar, cinnamon, and a chopped apple to Grandma's basic recipe, and notes that these round doughnuts are a traditional Dutch treat for New Year's Eve celebrations.

These fried dough balls are also the precursor of modern American doughnuts. In fact, the recipe goes back several centuries. Food historian Peter G. Rose has traced a similar recipe from the Hudson Valley area in what was once part of New Netherland (now Albany in Upstate New York) back to the seventeenth century Dutch cookbook De Verstandige Kock ("The Sensible Cook"), noting also that the "Albany method" of preparing this tasty treat is the typical New Netherland preparation: "four pounds flour, one pound sugar, one pound butter and 12 eggs, a teacup of yeast and as much milk as you please say near or quite three pints."*

In 17th century New Netherland, this delicacy was called olie-koecken. Later descendants of the early Dutch immigrants would soak the raisins in brandy overnight to give the snack a festive flavor. Whether you use the "Albany method" of preparing this snack, or your own traditional recipe, it does make a New Year's Eve party festive. Chances are my early Dutch ancestors in New Netherland enjoyed the treat as much as my modern family did.

Eet smakelijk! Enjoy your meal.


Dutch vocabulary:

tarwebloem (n.)  =  whole wheat flour
gist (n.)  =  yeast
melk (n.)  =  milk
krenten (n.)  =  currants
rozijnen (n.)  =  raisins
sucade (n.)  =  candied fruit peel
zout (n.)  =  salt

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* Rose, Peter G., Food, Drink and Celebrations of the Hudson Valley Dutch. The History Press, Charleston, SC. 2009; p. 75.