The "Oudewater" Connection

Oudewater is a beautiful and well maintained old city in the province of Utrecht. The above drawing is by the Dutch painter Cornelis Springer (1817-1891) and provides a view of the Town Hall of Oudewater.

In 2005 I had the opportunity to visit the city of Oudewater and to meet up with (second) cousins that I had never met before! (Hello Marja). During my visits there I was truly impressed with the overall look and feel of this old city. A lot of the old buildings, indeed whole sections of the city, look like they have not changed much during the last 200 years, but are in a good state of repair. Oudewater is important to me because it is the focus of a region where my father's father and family used to live. Over the next few months I will try and put together a special album (album #8) about Oudewater and the various families that are of interest to me there!

Traditional Dutch Costumes: Fishing Village of Volendam

Volendam is a small fishing village on the west coast of the IJsselmeer in the province of North Holland. Today not many of its inhabitants still wear the traditional dress as shown in the picture above. However, when these Janmaats visited Volendam they took advantage of a photo opportunity, which resulted in this beautiful photo. To find out who is in the photo visit the web site of the Janmaat Family and check out Photo Album 3.

Map of Waddinxveen around 1400

This is probably one of the most informative maps of "Waddinxveen" that I have ever come across. It is meant to show when the various sections of what we today call Waddinxveen were first developed. It is generally accepted that Waddinxveen was 'founded' in 1233; for this see the section of land along the Gouwe south of the Dorrekade. It is also interesting to note that development in (the polder of) Bloemendaal started much earlier in 1138 as shown on the map. Another interesting observation is that the section of land between the Kerkweg and the Dorrekade belonged to Bloemendaal and not to Waddinxveen. It is said that this allowed the people from Bloemendaal (Bloemendalers), who did not have their own church, to walk to the church of Waddinxveen over their own land, apparently much to the annoyance of the people of Waddinxveen.
For more information about Waddinxveen visit the web site of the Janmaat Family and check out Album 4.