| About
Dike-reeve’s, Bailiff’s and Sherrif’s
Q: I have
a question to ask anyone.
A 'dijkgraaf', in the dictionary, means a bailiff. But I have a friend
that would like to know more about that. What role did he play in the
community?
What were responsibilities of a dijkgraaf? Was there something more to
a bailiff back then, as apposed to what I can see on Judge Mathis, these
days?
A : A bailiff is not a 'dijkgraaf' (anymore). 'Dike-reeve' is what
my dictionary gives now.(Actually the Dutch word 'dijkgraaf' literally
means: dike-Count, but most dike-reeves were -and still are- not of noble
descent). The dijkgraaf is the chairman of the dike-board/ polder-board.In
other words the dijkgraaf was the boss of a group of people who formed
a conservancy board for canals, dikes, polders etc. Mostly the dijkgraaf
and his other board-members were the local notables of the region which
had to be protected and controlled.
Since the Low Lands (what's in a name..) did need dikes they did need
people to take care of them as well. In the beginning the building of
the first dikes (about 900) was initialized by the Count/local ruler or
by cooperating farmers.In other parts, or regions where the power of the
Count wasn't strong, the monasteries took over the organization and worked
for dike- building and drainage.Both Count / the local ruler and Abbot
did appoint the leader of the polder-board/dike-board. (AND, in the early
day's the Count often did appoint his bailiff as leader, the dike-reeve.
The first organized polder-boards date from the eleventh century. From
the 13th century various polder-boards were combined into a larger managerial
body (hoogheemraadschap). This was always initiated by the local Counts.Bear
in mind that, till the first windmills (needed for the drainage) came
in about
1400, the drainage had to be done by digging waterway's (weteringen) to
the big rivers where the water could be drained off during low tide sea.
It will not surprise you that the function of dijkgraaf has been adopted
as a family name: The DIJKGRAAF name thus is a frequently occurring name.
There is a nice site from a Dijkgraaf-family, also giving a good explanation
of the dijkgraaf-function to be found here:
http://www.dijkgraaf.org/dijkgraaf.htm
As to 'baljuw' (often translated as 'bailiff'):
Officially the baljuw was an official, civil servant, appointed by the
sovereign lord /Count / local ruler. Mostly he was charged with the administration
of justice in a certain region.
A functionary with a similar job was called a 'schout' (head of the court
and the police / public prosecutor) in Dutch. That's why we find 'sheriff'
and 'bailiff' as the English translations of Dutch word 'schout'. It is,
however, rather difficult and tricky to use these terms:
1. regionally the function of a schout could be different;
2. regionally there were other names used for the same function (for instance,
the 'grietman' in the province of Friesland. This function however also
included some meddling with water-control!);
3.In some polders the name of the 'dike-reeve' could be schout instead!
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| "Holland"
or "the Netherlands"
Q: What
actually is the name of your country? I hear so many people using the
word 'Holland'. Not only English-speaking folks do but also Germans use
to speak of 'Holland'
A : The official name of our country is:
"Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" [Kingdom of the Netherlands]
In German and French the name respectively is: Die Niederlanden and les
Pays Bas, both meaning: the Low Countries.
Holland is the name of a part of the Kingdom of
the Netherlands. Actually Noord- and Zuid-Holland nowadays are two of
the 12 existing provinces of the Kingdom.
Originally Holland was the name of the coastal county which was first
established in 863. Through the years, ages the county of Holland became
more and more powerful and from the sixteenth century it became the leading
role in the States General of the Netherlands. This economic and political
superiority over the other regions, provinces of the Netherlands must
automatically have led to the use of 'Holland' when referring to the Netherlands.
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| Dutch
involvement in the slave-trade
Q: What was the role of the Dutch in
the Atlantic slave-trade?
A : The Dutch involvement in the slave trade was small compared
with that of the other European powers: England, France, Spain and Portugal
– it accounted for five percent of the total Atlantic slave trade.
When the Dutch were actively engaged in it, they were responsible for
transporting some 600,000 slaves from West Africa to the America's.
It's not impossible that this awfull figure will have been considerably
higher: the Dutch traders even transported slaves for the Portuguese,
French, Spaniards and even English.
As slave-masters/owners, the Dutch had a very cruel reputation, especially
in Surinam. |
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About
the word "Dutch"
Q: The word 'Dutch' is confusing.
It easily corrupts to 'Deutch' which means 'German'. Where actually does
the word 'Dutch' com from and what does it mean ?
A : The word 'DUTCH' is derived
from the old Dutch word 'DIETS', meaning:
'from the people', or 'vernacular tongue'.
Actually the word 'Diets', or 'Diedsch'
was used in the early Middle Ages to distinguish the Germanic languages,
spoken by the people, from the Romanic, Wallonic languages and dialects.
The first known, written literature in the 'Diets' language is from the
12th century, found in the province of Limburg.
'DIETS' is the Flemish/Dutch naming;
'DUUTS'/'DUYTSCH' is the Holland/Dutch naming.
In the course of time however 'Duytsch' or 'Duuts'
has become the Dutch word for the German language. We are now talking
about 'Duits' when we're referring to the language of our neighbors.
As to the language, used in the Netherlands we'd
better use the word 'Netherlandic' instead of Dutch. |
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| What's
a polder?
Q: What
is a polder and what does it look like (schematically)?
A : A polder = land reclaimed from a body of
water and protected by dikes.
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| Q:Does
the webmaster of this site perform genealogical searches in the Netherlands
or Belgium? Does he visit archives? A
: Straight answer: No! As a matter of fact I hate archives. Been there
to find out more about my progenitors but needed the help of some elderly
archive rats to find at least the place where to look. It took an army
of more helpful persons to help me how to look.
All I (can) do is sometimes show you the way in the Netherlands, tell
you where to look.
I even can occasionally translate (parts of) Dutch homepages if requested.
My main interests, however, are history, topography and language, onomatics.
I can tell you a bit about that. For persons, searching their roots, I
surf the (Dutch) web(pages) daily to find anything appropriate for them. |
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| Q:What's
this about the Northern- and Southern Netherlands, the Netherlands and Belgium?
What the heck is the difference? A
:The easy, not too complicated answer (all scientifically correct
answers will send you into the dark wood):
Once (say: around the year 1000) there was a patchwork quilt of loosely
connected or neighboring counties, duchies, small kingdoms, baronies,
bishoprics etc. etc. stretching from Burgundy up to Friesland.
It never was a nation united but linguistically, culturally and geographically
there was talk of an obvious resemblance (That is: between most of the
territories, which were of German nature. Part of the territory I'm talking
about, the most southern part, was of Roman nature).
In name, almost all of the territories I'm now talking about, were
part of the German Empire. In name only, though: the daily influence of
the emperor was no match for the actual Duke, Bishop, Count or Baron.
Later in history (from the end of the 13th century up till far in the
16th century) these territories were united, comprising roughly present-day
Netherlands, Belgium and northern parts of France (Hainaut and Artois).
These united territories became known under the name 'the Netherlands',
more precisely the Northern Netherlands (Holland, Zeeland,
Gelre, Friesland, the northern part of Brabant,Nedersticht and Oversticht)
and the Southern Netherlands (Flanders, the southern part
of Brabant, Hainaut, Namur, Artois and Luxembourg)
At the end of the 15th century however, these united territories became
part of the Hapsburgian Empire. Unlike previous emperors the Hapsburgian
dynasty started to reduce the medieval privileges of dukes, counts and
other vassals. These attempts created a situation in which the Hapsburg's
were bound to collide with the rich and powerful and the more or less
autonomous regions of the Netherlands. The fact that reformation
started meanwhile made things even more complicated: the inhabitants the
Netherlands didn't enjoy the cruel behavior of the Spanish emperor towards
the non-catholics nor did they want to loose their priviliges, so they
started to oppose to the emperor. It took them 80 years to get rid of
the man and become free: in 1648 the state of
'the United Netherlands' was born. The
Southern Netherlands remained in Spanish hands and were
referred to as 'the Spanish Netherlands'.What we now
call Belgium almost covers the area of the Southern Netherlands; what
we now call the Netherlands, roughly covers the area of the United Netherlands.
Roughly.
From 1713 -1794 the Spanish Netherlands came in the hands of the Austrian
Hapsburgians Therefore this the name of the territory changed into 'the
Austrian Netherlands'. Then Napoleon came and the Austrian Netherlands
were immediately added to France (from the early history on the Kings
of France always tried to conquer parts of Artois, Flanders, Namur and
Hainaut).
By the time Napoleon tried to bide his time at st. Helena (1815) the 'United
Kingdom of the Netherlands' had become a fact, and in 1814 the former
Spanish Netherlands were added to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.This
lasted till 1830.So, from 1814-1830 both present day Belgium and the Netherlands
formed 'the United Kingdom of the Netherlands'.
Finally in 1830, the Belgians revolted against the non-catholic Dutch
and freed themselves from the Dutch. In 1831 'the Kingdom of Belgium'
was a fact.
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Q:
Pennsylvania Dutch (Deitsch): how Dutch?
A :The short answer is that the PA Duch are
Germans or at least of German speaking origin.'Dutch' being a mistranslation
of Deutsch, which is German for 'German'.
But, the issue is (made) far more complicated. Some people let 'PA Dutch'
refer to a group of persons; some use it to denote the language/dialect
that people speak.
Regarded as a group of persons these 'Dutch' are in fact German -speaking
individuals which can come from Germany, the Polish-Russian area, Bohemia,
Moravia, Austria, Luxembourg, Alsace or Switzerland. They now can be found
in various parts of North America (Ohio, Indiana, Ontario), but especially
in Pennsylvania with the Amish and Old Order Mennonites.
Regarded as a language, or -rather- dialect, it is far more complicated
because different spellings complicate things further. Dutch, Deitsch,
Diets, Plattdeutsch, Plautdietsch, Low German and variations are mixed
to an undrinkable cocktail!
Forget about the conception 'Dutch': this only and simply refers to the
Netherlandic language and has NOTHING to do with 'Deitsch, Plattdeutsch
etc.
'PA Dutch' or 'PA Deitsch' can be regarded
as a dialect of the High German language.
'Plattdeutsch' is
a Low German dialect spoken in the northern parts of Germany.
'Deitsch' is the name used by the Amish and other groups
in North America, themselves to denote the language they speak. Unfortunately
'Deitsch' is also used to denote the various dialects spoken today in
various German speaking parts (the Palatinate, Southern Austria, and Luxembourg,
BUT 'Deitsch' is also a dialect-word of 'Deutsch','German in general',
used by speakers in various parts of the German speaking area: 'Deitsch
on frei wolln mer sei' (German and free is, what we want to be)
For a good overview, please visit the Freedictionary.com.
They have a good article about the 'PA German'.
A very good authority on the matter is:
The
Center for Pennsylvania German Studies
Director: Professor C. Richard Beam
406 Spring Drive
Millersville, PA 17551-2021 .
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Q:
Were there connections between the Republic and German East Frisia?
A: Yes. Since the early history there have been strong ties between the
Netherlands, and East Frisia. The Frisian-Saxon province of Groningen
and German East Frisia had their regional language in common and there
were regular trade contacts. At the beginning of Reformation Emden, East
Frisia, became a freehaven for calvinist protestants who had fled the
Netherlands at the beginning of the Eighty Year War. In 1571 the first
Synod of the Calvinist church was held at Emden.
In 1806 Dutch troops occupied East Frisia and annexing territories like
Oldenburg, Jever, Varel and Knyphausen. (Varel and Knyphausen being a
possession of the Dutch 'Bentinck Family'.) These territories became part
of the "Koninkrijk Holland" (under Napoleons brother Louis Napoleon)
In 1810 the Kingdom of Holland as well as the occupied Eastfrisian territories
and Oldenburg (called "Département de l'Ems oriental")
became integral part of the French Republic. This lasted till 1813 when
Napoleon left Germany after having lost the battle at Leipzig.
In this sense East Frisia or parts of it never actually have been part
of the Netherlands, but more parts of France. But than again there were
Dutch troops and garrisons in Emden and Leerort from 1609 up to 1744. |
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