Stuff you can find on the internet

A nice quiet day today. Just stayed at home reading the paper, lounging on the couch with a book, doing some laundry, and piddling around on the computer.

Since I started yesterday with my grandmother's windmill, I decided to poke around some more, see what else I could come up with.

I found another website about the mill where I found some interesting information.
Seems that my great grandfather started working on that mill in 1876. He bought the thing in 1889.
After his death in 1898, his youngest son took over the running of the mill.
I don't know how many children there were and where my grandmother fit in, she might have been the youngest.

So my great grandfather (my mother's mother's father) lived to the ripe old age of 75, which, in those days must have been a rare thing, since most people didn't get much older than 55 or maybe 60. This explains to me why many family members on my mother's side live to be 90 or older!

In that article I also found out that my great grandfather wasn't born where we all thought he was born, where the mill is, in Culemborg, province Gelderland. No, he was born in Hilvarenbeek, way down south near the city of Tilburg in the province of North Brabant, close to Belgium. He was born January 21, 1823.

HIS father was a miller too! And when I figured out the date and the village where my great grandfather was born, it was a cinch to find his actual birth registry!

There it was, on a hand written page in the official registry! Right there on my screen!

Found out that my great-great grandfather's name (my mother's mother's father's father) was Cornelius, who was 37 at the time my great grandfather, Johannes, was born. His wife's name was Antonia, who was 27 when she had the baby.


It was an exciting experience for me to see the actual handwriting (the signature) of my great great grandfather!

SO, from my mother's side I came from a family of millers.

Interesting!

And even more interesting to me are the names I came across. Most of which were handed down through the generations.
Johannes, Johanna, Margaretha, Cornelius, Hendrikus, Antonia.

My mother: Hendrika
My uncle: Antonius
Another aunt: Johanna
My auntie in OZ: Cornelia Antonia
My grandmother: Johanna Margaretha
My other cousin in OZ's mom: Johanna
My own Name: Margaretha Johanna
And Boo-boo: Skyla Johanna

I'm sure I am leaving some folks out here, but you get my drift, I hope.

This genealogy stuff is complicated, and I am not up to speed to really dig into my family's history too much. It takes many many many hours and hard work, and time is just not something I have much of, no patience either.

But it was fun to just peel off a teeny layer here.

Now if I could only dig into my father's side of the family. No one seems to know where THEY came from.

Perhaps if and when Iggy makes true on his promise to meet me in Holland some day soon, we can take a few weeks (HAHA) ...cough...days and go to those places and rummage around in the city archives. Should be fun.

SGMKJ!