These seem to be the common questions for many of us who have 17th century NN ancestors.
I am interested in a general appraisal of how other researchers have fared in their attempts to answer these questions.
It is my impression that many researchers devote their energies to solving descents, collaterals, who was that guy etc, after immigration obviously from the available material in the US.
I am not aware of many, if any [ but hope to be enlightened ] who have a pre immigration line of 1, 2, 3 generations back in the Netherlands so that the immigrants parents and grandparents are known and their place of residence perhaps back to c1550. This may also provide a sense of or the actual meaning of the origin of the surname.
For my own line I have been able to narrow the date of arrival from a span of several years up to the first record of the immigrant in NN in 1654 [ in the gap years for shipping records ] to a single year of 1652. Like many others I have partial knowledge of where the immigrant was in some of the years prior to emigration, in fact since c1630, but no confirmation of where he was born or his parents or grandparents. I would love to know.
Is there anyone out there who has this in their direct line? If so, would they please like to mail on how they achieved this?
I think the common problems have been over language and familiarity [ or lack of it ] with the home country and of course access to it and its records. If anyone does write can they say if they have used professional genealogical help. How did you establish the links back through the 2 or 3 generations prior to emigration?
Thanks for your interest.
Laurence van Kleek
