Daniel Sutherland of Netherlands brick wall

Question

Where can I find more information about Daniel Sutherland? Sutherland-6315. Was he born in the Netherlands? Was he in the Scottish guard? Was his father in Scottish guard? When did this branch of the Sutherlands come to the Netherlands and why? From the dates of the two Daniel Sutherlands I assume they were military and not part of the land clearances. Second Daniel Sutherland-6313.

Answer 1

Hi Julie! I've started some work on the profile :-) I'll try to figure out some more, going through some more not so easily accessible sources ^_^.

Comments

Added in a few documents and evidence - haven't been able to find a birth so far. Birth place might be wrong, the only source is the death record.

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Oh wow! That is a lot of information. I have looked and looked with very little information to show. You have given me a lot to look at. I know the further away a person is, the less documentation. Hopefully a trail to Scotland eventually. I was always told we have Scottish blood, looks more like Dutch. Thanks Willem.

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Just one final update, I found the parents of Antje Jans / Antje Wessels : Jan Wessels & Atje Betthes.

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Thank you , thank you, Thank you. I'm going to try and get my Sutherland brother to sign up on wikitree vs ancestry and put what he has for Sutherland's. He doesn't have the information  you have gratefully shared.

Thanks, Julie

Answer 2

Its likely that Daniel Sutherland was the son of a soldier of the Scots Brigade in Holland, who were active in Maastricht at about this time.  it will be necessary to find the name of his father before we can be sure.  A three-volume history of the Scots Brigade in Holland is available on the Internet.  This includes some baptismal records, but Daniel is not mentioned among them (I've checked).  This could be because his father had married a Dutch girl and had his son baptised in a local reformed church, rather than in an army barracks.  I hope this will provide some pointers.

Comments

Thanks Michael. That makes since if Daniel's family has been there for some time. Just like around any military facility today, service people often marry local men/women. I had thought possibly in a book about the Scottish brigade there would be information. Alas another wall. If Daniel's fathers name were to be found, that may open another door. I've checked https://www.openarch.nl/, roots, www.rootssearch.io/search, general search ... I'm still pretty much a new person to genealogy. I'm contemplating a course at the junior college on genealogy. Much thanks, Julie

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Hi there! I checked the local Dutch reformed church records as well - no sign of Daniel. I'm fairly confident that his father was in the Scottish brigade, probably in the regiment that later (1784) became Infantery Regiment Nationalen 23. Regiment Nationalen 23 and Regiment Nationalen 25 were both stationed in and around Maastricht around 1758 - Regiment Nationalen 24 (the other Scottish brigade) was located near the province of Zeeland.

The first document I found that mentions Daniel is when he is registered as a member of the Dutch reformed church of Nieuweschans in 1789 - which aligns with the regiment he served in. He came from Steenbergen, but those records do not survive for the years we need; in Sluis (see profile) he's not listed in the list of members of this army unit that left in 1786. What is interesting about the 1789 registration is that it at least makes us confident that Daniel was baptised in the Dutch reformed church - being a member before his own marriage.

What would be interesting is to see if we can get a birth date from one of the army service or pension records - but that would require payment or local lookups (maybe, if I get to visit the national archives again, I'll do a lookup).

Furthermore, I think we're still missing a few baptisms of his children. Especially between 1792 and 1798; I have checked for births in Zutphen between 1798 and 1802.

@Julie ; I think you already did quite a good job finding him if you're pretty much a new person! Tracing Dutch pre-1815 soldiers is pretty much a nightmare ;-). I can guarantee this won't be an easy find, I think this has already taken a few hours of my time to come up with some solid profile - mostly because not every record is that well-indexed.

For Dutch research https://www.openarch.nl/ is important, as is https://www.genealogieonline.nl/digi/bronnen.html :-)

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Julie, I suspect you are expecting to crack this problem far too quickly.  When I encountered a serious blockage in my wife's Sutherland family tree, it took me three years of intensive research to find a way forward.  In your case, I suspect the answer may lie in a local parish record (assuming the record has survived, of course).  Bear in mind that people's names are often wrongly spelt, especially if the name is foreign to the person making the record.  As well as Sutherland, you could look under Souterland, etc.  You also have the option to work in two directions.  You can look for Daniel Sutherland in the Dutch parish records.  You can also make a list of Scotch Brigade soldiers named Sutherland, who could have been Danie's father.  You could look for their names under various spellings.  Viewed from this perspective, there is a good chance you will eventually find your man, but expect it to take a long time.  If you can find his father's name, it should be possible to trace his family back to medieval times, using the excellent Scottish clan records.  

Kind Regards, Michael

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Thank you so much. This should help my brother and myself with the search. I have to get him back to searching soon.

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@Michael ; I agree that this will not be an easy feat. Part of the problem here lies in the fact that the regiments operated within an area that is now split between different countries, and military records for the time period are quite scarce and not available online.

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Wishful thinking! Thanks on the behalf of my brother and a local genealogist I've got to Daniel jr. The net to Daniel Sr. I'm sure we have a task before us. All your suggestions are helpful.  ( my older brother: Michael Sutherland)! Thanks Michael

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The last week I have been quite busy and haven't had time to do anything on my wikitree. I want to thank all those who have helped in my search for answers to Daniel Sutherland. I look forward to learning all the ins and outs of doing family research.