Noord-Holland?

Question

Trying to sort this out so i get it correct.Totally lost. Can anyone tell me what Noord-Holland means. I am guessing they are district's. But how do i know which is which.  I have also come across Noord-Brabant. In Moolenaar-13 i have a picture that has been added saying something about Noord-Holland. Do i have to do this to all my Dutch family.

Thank you for your time in trying to sort me out.

P.S. Bergeyk and Bergeik are they the same place?

Carol

Comments

I have now found a map with all 12 Provinces and understand it a bit better. But i still do not know which towns & cities go where.

Answer 1

Something is of course better than nothing, and the more precise you can be the better, but I would suggest following the administrative levels of "municipality, province, country". The municipality (gemeente) are functionally like a county, and are where a person would typically start looking for information. As an example Bakkum is a village but you would look for it's records under the municipality it belongs to: Castricum, Noord-Holland, Nederland.

Summary: Wikipedia may be your best friend for places.

By the way on the profile for Hendrikus it says he was born at 's-Graveland in the bio but the birth field gives Bussum (where he was married) His birth (at 's-Graveland) is found in:

"Netherlands, Noord-Holland, Civil Registration, 1811-1950," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-10818-30863-94?cc=2020117 : 21 May 2014), 's-Graveland NH > Geboorten 1843-1882 > image 158 of 568; Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem (Noord-Hollands Archives, Haarlem).

Comments

I agree with Rob Ton.  I'm glad you found a map showing the 12 provinces.  That's definitely a good place to start.  

Many provinces are broken up into 3 - 10 "counties".  I've been writing these down as the "regio" on the Dutch Roots template. They're not often easy to figure out if you're not familiar with the geography of the Netherlands. If you don't know what to do with these, I would suggest leaving that space blank and putting the name of the town in "gemeente".  The correct "regio" can always be filled in later by someone more familiar with them.

I agree with Rob that going to Wikipedia will save you the largest amount of time.  Every town in the Netherlands is included in Wikipedia, and the name of the "county" is also often included.

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Thank-you for your help. I spent 8 hours yesterday trying to work it all out. I have a tree that has names but no sources so as i add a name i am trying to source it. I live in New Zealand so it is hard working out places in a different Country.

Carol

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Carol, we are here to help.  If you're struggling with finding something, let us know and we may be able to find it quickly.  

I decided to look up Cornelis Molenaar baptized in Hoorn in 1811 for you, to see if I could get the line further back.  There's a database that has all that information on it.  Unfortunately, he didn't show up my first look there.  If you want me to get more creative in my searches, I can.  There was a Cornelis Jansz Molenaar in Hoorn around 1780 - quite possibly your Cornelis' grandfather.

Answer 2

Noord Holland means Northern Holland or the North of the Netherlands. There is a clear distinction between the North and the South of the Netherlands.

Comments

@ Ingrid Perri. I'm sorry, but I have to correct you on this.

Noord-Holland is definitely not the same as the Northern part of the Netherlands.

Noord-Holland is the name of just one Province. And Zuid-Holland is another Province. They are together forming most of the western part of the country.
From the 10th to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region, as a county ruled by the Counts of Holland. The division into two Provinces is something from the 18th and 19th century.

By drawing a line left to right (or West to East) just below Schiphol Airport, to divide the map in roughly equal (northern and southern) parts, then Noord-Holland would be a relatively small part of that northern part.

When the Dutch are talking about "the North" or "the Northern part of the country" it is mostly about the combination of the Provinces of Friesland and Groningen; and sometimes including Drenthe.

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I stand corrected. Thank you for setting me straight. I am Australian born of Dutch parents, so obviously not completely up with the finer points. I gave the best information I had, as I understood it. My apologies for getting it wrong.