Can You Help Mata Hari, Black Sheep Project and Collaborative Profile of the Week?

Question

The Black Sheep Project and Collaborative Profile of the Week present:
Mata Hari

Margaretha Geertruida "M'greet" Zelle Macleod (7 august 1876-15 October 1917), better known by the stage name "Mata Hari," was a Dutch exotic dancer, courtesan, and accused spy, who was executed by firing squad in France under charges of espionage for Germany during World War I.

Mata Hari is probably one of the most famous female spies who ever lived. But there is not much information about her on her WikiTree profile nor has she been connected yet to our worldwide family tree.

1. Who were her parents?
2. Did she ever get married?
3. Did she have any children?
4. Why did she become a spy?
5. How was she caught?
6. Why did Mata Hari become so legendary?
7. Can we connect her to the Global Tree?

It’s helpful to the collaboration and to save duplication of work, if you post an answer here before working on some aspect of the profile. But please feel free to simply add to the profile whatever you’ve found with it’s source.

The Black Sheep Project

The Black Sheep Project exists to highlight the people on WikiTree who would be considered "black sheep" and support those that have family members they wish to be included in the project. We describe Black Sheep as those that were outcasts, outlaws, or just plain outlandish! The categories of black sheep used on WikiTree track the criteria set up by the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists. There are also seven sub-projects devoted to Bootleggers and Moonshiners, Gangsters, Hatfield and McCoy, Outlaws, Pirates, Spies and Traitors and Witch Trials. There is something for everyone in the black sheep project.

Thank you.

Comments

Great pick! Thanks, Anne.

Now featured on the main home page.

I'm going to go ahead and remove the "special notice" section from the profile.

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O great pick indeed, I'll take a look and see if I can help :)

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Carrie already you already found some stuff, I can add profiles for them if you like , and perhaps we could use some recycle profiles for them ?

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Father is already connected by Scott :)

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Thanks, Bea - just was trying to get a little done while I had a minute. Found a couple of sources for him too.

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We had one of these where I worked in the late ..70's!

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She married June 10, 1907 in Rheden, Gelderland.

Found and add source

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Thanks Scott and Joop , I added the parents for Adam Zelle + their marriage record, according the marriage record both born about 1811 , so looking for their baptims records now to figure out their correct LNAB . I used recycle Unknowns so the LNAB still Unknown and working on it now :)

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Add husband, found death certificate,

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Found and add daughter.

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Awesome Joop !

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Yes she was quite famous eeh Vincent :D

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You all are amazing. Thank you

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Thanks Scott for adding them all and are you going to add Minke as well ?

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Are you sure the daughter is correct? She was born 1898 but Margarette and Rudolph have a marriage date of 1907

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Or the marriage date is different according to Carrie's answer below.

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She married 11 Jul 1895 and divorced 10 Jun 1907. 

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Thanks Joop for clearing that up.

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Still working on adding and sourcing ancestors for father Adam now :)

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@ Scott

Hi Scott, Thanks for your correction of the middlename but this is in a Dutch Record wrong. We Dutch dont now the Middlename en add al firstnames in the PFN field, in the profiles of Dutch born people.

Greetings Joop

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Found  Birthcertificate of her son Norman John, made his profile and add this Sources.

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Sad story about little Norman .... but great you found his Birth record and he now has a profile :) The Zelle ancestors were originally from Rheda Nordrhein Westfalen Germany 

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@Joop - Thanks for the update! I thought I was helping, but good to know that information. I'll be a bit more careful next time to not presume a middle name where there apparently isn't one.

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Wow you guys: https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Zelle-Family-Tree-2 Great work!

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This might help...  There is a LONG article in the Lethbridge Herald (available with a very poor scan!!) from my library's electronic database, NewspaperArchive.  Here's the citation (only):  Alberta, Lethbridge, Lethbridge Herald, 1928 Lethbridge Herald, October, 20 1928.  The article that begins on page 25 of the scanned version shows "continued," but I cannot determine the previous page number.  It is difficult to read comprehensively.

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@Scott you are and did great ! So please just keep it up (for Dutch profiles, here's the Dutch Glossary which might help explain things a bit more)

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Thank you all, this was an excellent collaboration.

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It's a pleasure and really great to work on profiles this way, thank you Anne for all those wonderful profiles and families we have around here thanks to you ! You can be sooo proud !! 

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Thank you Bea, for the kind words and the great graphic.

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I'm still a bit disappointed that we weren't able to find a connection to the tree, so I'm still looking into family. Rudolph MacLeod is supposed to be descended from the Clan MacLeod's of old, so I'm not sure if he can be tracked back to them.

And I added his mother, who was a Baroness:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sweerts_de_Landas-1

I'm not sure if that last name should be the whole thing "Sweerts de Landas" or just Sweerts. Any thoughts?

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Hmm - and it appears it is a lineage of nobility - the Baron/Baroness titles passed down through several generations...

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweerts_de_Landas

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I don't have the foggiest about how to do the name, but thank you for your continued efforts.

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OK - got Rudolph connected back through the MacLeod line. The line seems accurate, but the documentation is pretty weak. Rootsweb and Geni sources primarily. I will have to follow up to see if I can obtain some stronger secondary sources or possibly some primary sources. But at least we have some targets to shoot at for whether or not the lineage is accurate.

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Thanks, Anne! And it gets even more interesting, as they add more to it down the line.

Sweerts - changes to

Sweerts de Landas - changes to

Sweerts de Landas Wyborgh

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Wonderful sleuthing Scott.

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@Scott same here ;) 

Still trying to find a connection as well, I think the early Fries ancestors might lead to a connection somewhere as well (noticed some familiar names already and because names were often repeated it looks pretty good)

But of course 'more ways can lead to a connection' so love the Sweerts de Landas one as well of course. Here are the search results for Dina Sweerts de Landas at Archieven.nl And this are the results for just the Last name Sweerts de Landas  and here Sweerts de Landas Wijborgh or Sweerts de Landas-Wijborg

A whole lot of and for /about them so hope it helps :)

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Hi Scott,

Added some primary sources to the profiles of the parents, according the death record his father was 'Captain of the first batallion eighth regiment infantry' (don't know if it's translated ok using google) He died in Milligen a small village near Apeldoorn.

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And YES connected :D  Congrats Scott you did it !

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Thanks, Bea! Team effort! :)

Answer 1

Her parents were Adam Zelle and Antje van der Meulen https://www.wiewaswie.nl/personen-zoeken/zoeken/document/srcid/37207467

Image: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-13724-2356-24?cc=2026975

Comments

That was fast. Thank you

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Just happen to be up!

She was married to Rudolph Macleod on 11 Jul 1895 https://www.wiewaswie.nl/personen-zoeken/zoeken/document/srcid/31364068

Image: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-10817-31602-8?cc=2020117

Answer 2

Thank you everyone for showing some love to Mata Hari!!

Her profile and family tree are looking terrific!

Answer 3

How she was caught

Trial and execution

At her arrest

In December 1916, the French Second Bureau of the French War Ministry let Mata Hari obtain the names of six Belgian agents. Five were suspected of submitting fake material and working for the Germans, while the sixth was suspected of being a double agent for Germany and France. Two weeks after Mata Hari had left Paris for a trip to Madrid, the double agent was executed by the Germans, while the five others continued their operations. This development served as proof to the Second Bureau that the names of the six spies had been communicated by Mata Hari to the Germans.^[18]

^{wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Hari}

Comments

Thanks Dan

Answer 4

Found this from the Guardian of December 5, 2016: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/05/the-real-mata-hari-executed-abused-woman

Answer 5

There is also new information out there that she was set up by the French government.  And was not actually the Black Sheep she was printed out to be.

Comments

When you are a double agent, you are NOT going to be appreciated by somebody, and probably not by anybody.  What Mata Hari may have done is to give away some classified information to the Germans in the hope of gaining something of real importance for the French.  She might not have let the French in on this idea, so when they saw that their agent was compromised by Mata Hari, they considered her to be a person of interest to counterintelligence,  that is to say, a spy for the opposition.

      When you say the French set her up, they probably did, to see if she was really on their side or not by giving her information that they could test her with.  Double Agents must surely be a lot more common than most people believe, as both sides usually know who is going back and forth across the lines, and money, rather than patriotism is usually the primary motivation for spying.  Suspicion must be the primary philosophy of all intelligence agencies because of the sensitivity of the information being stolen, so these agencies probably test all their agents in the way Mata Hari was tested, and she was tested, and "found wanting."