other Cole marriages

So far I have only reported on the Cole surname line. As I worked back in time to my earliest Koole, I found marriages for each generation in the records. Each gives the maiden name of the woman, so I now have more names to track through the records, which I will be working on in the future. Here are prints from the online index at Zeeuwengezocht.nl and scans from copies made of microfilm of the early 20th century copies made of records of some of the marriages:

From my immigrant ancestors Pieter Koole and Thona van Beek (see my April 12 post), his parents were Lieven Koole and Adriaantje Leeuw:

Lieven Koole
Bridegroom on Friday, March 12, 1813 Dreischor
Gemeente : Dreischor
Aktenummer (number) : 1
Aktedatum (date) : 12-03-1813
BRUIDEGOM : Lieven Koole
Leeftijd (age) : 25 jaar
Geboorteplaats (place of birth) : Zonnemaire
Beroep (occupation) : Journalier
BRUID : Ariaantje Leeuwe
Leeftijd (age) : 25 jaar
Geboorteplaats (place of birth) : Dreischor
Beroep (occupation) : Particuliere
VADER BRUIDEGOM (father bridegroom) : Cornelis Koole
Beroep (occupation) : Cultivator
MOEDER BRUIDEGOM (mother bridegroom) : Adriaantje Jonker
VADER BRUID (father bride) : Barend Leeuw
Beroep (occupation) : Particulier
MOEDER BRUID (mother bride) : Cornelia van Bloijs

The parents of Lieven were Cornelis Koole and Adriaantje Jonker:

Cornelis Koole
Bridegroom tax of marriage on Friday, April 14, 1786 Zonnemaire
Bruidegom : Cornelis Koole
Bruid : Arijaantje Jonker
Datum betaling trouwgeld : 14-04-1786
Plaats : Zonnemaire
Bron : Archief Rekenkamer Zeeland D inv.nr 45401



Cornelis was the son of Pieter Matthijs Koole and Maria Borluijd:


And the parents of Pieter Mattijsse Koole were Matthijs Koole and Maria Stoutens:



More later on these women!

So, before the wordless day, I mentioned that I have this Cole line traced back to my 7th great-grandparents. We very boringly call them great-great-great, etc., grandparents. Dutch is way much cooler - they have a name for each generation of grandparents up to the 64th generation and beyond!

Parents are ouders and grandparents are grootouders. So far, pretty much the same. But then they start a system of names for each earlier generation. Great-grandparents are overgrootouders. Great-great-grandparents are betovergrootouders. then come oudouders (3rd great-grands), oudgrootouders (4th), oudovergrootouders (5th), oudbetovergrootouders (6th) and stamouders - 7th great-grandparents. This, to me, would be Pieter Koole and Lijsbeth Robbregts.

If you notice the pattern - after the first four are repeated with a prefix term. First "oud-" is added before each of the four terms. Then "stam" is added to each term (8th great would be stamgrootouders). But then it carries on with the next four - so "stam" is added to the "oud" series of 4 also. Then "edel" is added before the whole string and after that "voor" is added to begin the string.
That takes one up to generation 64. So you eventually get to vooredelstamoudbetovergrootouders. What a kick!!
Of course, not many of us have documented lineage going back that far, and not many people use these terms. But fascinating, anyway.
You can look up the whole string, plus additional terms to continue on for generations more on Wikipedia < http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voorouder >

Oh, by-the-way -- child is kind, grandchild = kleinkind. Next comes achterkleinkind. But that's it - no more special words.

Wordless Wednesday

It's Wordless Wednesday - a tradition among the Geneabloggers. So here is a look at the part of Zeeland when the Koole family left:


And here is how it looks today, from Google Maps:


View Larger Map

And here are some pictures of the area when my daughter and I visited 2 years ago:

my first Cole/Koole

I have been working my way back in time and records and have traced the paternal line of Pieter Koole (the immigrant) to his great-great-great-grandfather Pieter Koole and his wife Lijsbeth Robbereghts in Zonnemaire, Zeeland, married 1702. That would make this Pieter Koole my 7th Great grandfather (or great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather). Pretty cool, huh? I have copies of baptismal records and marriages for each of these generations (civil records for those after 1811, personal records for those after 1900). The church records from the 1700s are from microfilm of copies made in the 1918-1920 time frame. Apparently the originals were sent to the provincial archives in Middelburg, Zeeland and were destroyed in bombing in World War II. I am trying to learn more about this, but have yet to find any English accounts. So far my Dutch is only fair and I'm not too good at translating some of the more detailed websites. (I dropped out of Dutch class this year!!)
There is always the possibility that I made an error in linking people, or that the transcripts were in error. However, each of these marriages identifies the place and the baptismal records usually includes "getuige" (variously translated as witnesses, sponsors or godparents) who are usually parents and siblings of the birth parents. This helps to link families together. And, best of all for me - there is only this one cluster of the Koole family in town at this time - all tracing back to Pieter and Lijsbeth.



From this point, it will be more difficult. There are few earlier church records. And many records not online. Notarial records may help - for that I need to improve my skills with Dutch language and handwriting . And - in this particular case - Pieter Koole is identified as widower of Isabella Carels from "B op den Z." Have no clue where this is - possibly Brouwershaven, which is nearby and sort of on the sea? Thought possibly the larger city (now anyway) of Bergen op Zoom (I know of it from 20th century relatives living there) but is is some distance away. I do find some Carels family in Brouwershaven in what is now online, as well as in Zierikzee, but will need to do much more searching. Lijsbeth is from Zierikzee - it will be quite a search to try to find her parents.
Another problem getting back this far is that surnames are less common. Sometimes records only use a given name and a patronym (father's name). This is wonderfully helpful when the patronym is included as a middle name with the family name (as is the case with almost all of these generations of Kooles) but so far I have not found the earliest Pieter with any other identifiers. No patronym, no occupation, nothing other than the one reference to "from B op den Z." None for Lijsbeth either (although at least that is a less-common given name)
And, the time consuming part - when searching online records or indexes, I have to try many spellings. Robbereghts, Roberechts, Robrechts, etc. as well as all the K/Co(o)l(e) spellings!!!