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Genealogical Data
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Justification

Subjects dealt with:

Representativeness
Sources
Display of Surnames
Duplications
Display of Living Persons
Processing of Genealogical Data
Acknowledgements
In Progress

Representativeness

There is no attempt to draw a representative picture of the whole Jewish community in The Netherlands from 1700 until now. The families that have been looked out were chosen relatively at random. Besides the families of Bertha and Max van Dam, other families have been looked out completely or partially. The data relate in particular to families from Groningen and Amsterdam, as well as from Rotterdam and Overijssel.

Sources

A big effort has been made to record what sources have been used for the collection of the data. Original documents, digitalized data of archives and books have been used. Besides that, information about persons was provided by the requesting family, especially concerning the period after 1945.

In the course of the years, many books have been published about Jewish communities in both small and large places in The Netherlands. These books are mostly available in public libraries. The most appropriate address for these books in Israel is
The Center for Research on Dutch Jewry in Jerusalem, having a large library. Any books are documented in the sources of genealogical data.

Links of most of the digital sources used are documented.

A special source worthwhile to mention, are the members of Mail Group Genealogy of Seniorweb in The Netherlands (in Dutch), who retreived data very intensively in local archives in The Netherlands for the maker of this site. Without their cooperation, the research would have never been so extensive.

During the first years of over 10 years of research, data of other researchers has been used, who placed their work on internet. This practice has been used only sporadically during the latter years.

Display of Surnames

Based on French Law during the Napoleonic Period, the Registry Office was introduced. In each borough a clerk of the Registry Office registered births, marriages, divorces, and deaths. Everybody had to adopt a permanent surname, and with that, the spelling of the surname was fixed from now onwards in the certificate of birth at the Registry Office. This decision is in place in The Netherlands until today.

Spelling of the surnames during the first half of the 19th century was not always accurate for people who were born before 1811. People had to rely on oral communications or sometimes unclear registrations that were performed before 1811. The same was true for names mentioned in birth- marriage- and death certificates thereafter.

As a result of this practice, for the same family, differently spelled surnames came into existence.

In case different consulted sources show diverging spelling of names (both first names as well as surnames), spelling of the Registry Office has been used as standard. Concerning the period before 1811, spelling of the various sources has been used, such as books and archived documents.

A number of families were registered initially with a surname comprising of two separate parts, like "Cohen Bromet" or "Nunes Nabarro". In mant instances, later generations have simplified these names like in the two examples above into Bromet and Nabarro, respectively.

Names of people from Amsterdam in the period before 1811 are mostly spelled according Ashkenazi Amsterdam in the Eighteenth Century  and data from the Portuguese Cemetery at Oudekerk a/d Amstel, which can be found under the name Beth Haim.

Duplications

Although the database has been compiled carefully, it cannot be excluded that persons appear twice in the database. A notification would be appreciated very much.

Display of Living Persons

Concerning the display of people that are still alive, the common rule has been practiced for the publication of geneagology data. This means that for living people, only names are mentioned. In cases in which it is not known whether somebody, who was born less than a hundred year ago is still alive or not, the same

In case somebody wishes not to be mentioned in the genealogical data of this site, please acknowledge me.

Processing of Genealogical Data

For recording the genealogical data, the genealogy programme Brother's Keeper (English version) is being used. For the presentation of the genealogical material on internet, the programme HuMo-gen  is being used. Additional information about persons and/or families is sometimes presented in Dutch and sometimes in English. This is an inconsistency in the approach. In case you have troubles understanding the texts, please inform me.

Acknowledgements

Now this site has been released in March 2009, I (Max van Dam) would like to thank a few persons, who contributed considerably to the establishment of this site.

First and foremost my wife Bertha, who had a great passion for genealogy just like me, and who regrettably could not enjoy this moment we worked towards during the past years.

Our son Jacob, being more than interested in genealogy, brought us to this hobby, about 10 years ago. Without his big help during the past months, the actucual establishment of this site wouldn't have been realized. His computer skills and critical view are very valuable to me.

Moreover, I owe gratitude to Ben Noach of
Akevoth, who lead me to the excellent genealogy programme Brother's Keeper, many years ago. I also owe my gratitude to Nico Creveld, who showed me HuMo-gen for the presentation of genealogy data on internet, one and a half year ago. During the long preparatory phase I thank Huub Mons, the designer of HuMo-gen for realizing a good connection between HuMo-gen and Brother's Keeper.

Besides Huub Mons, I owe gratitude to Yossi Beck and Rob Hubert for the valuable advices and tips to get HuMo-gen good on track.

Evelien Ruitenbeek and Marja aan 't Goor of Genealogie-list van Seniorweb may not be missed in my list of acknowledgements. They gave me valuable tips for building HTML-pages.

Although mentioned before, cooperation with members of  Genealogie-list van Seniorweb was and is more than pleasant. Many have helped to trace information in archives. Here I won't name anybody, as the chance of forgetting one of them is too big. Each and every one of this group may feel personally directed to. A great group, that's being headed well.

In Progress  under construction klein

The following subjects are still in progress:

Improvement and unification of titles etc. and display of sources.

For individual family trees, concise information will be shown concerning relevant data of the particular families that have been looked out.