If you live in the US or Canada and one of your ancestors came from our Meetjesland, what can you do to find out more about these ancestors ? This question has been put to us before.
So here follow a few suggestions. We will add more when we come up with more. May we also count on your feedback ? Thank you very much.
First suggestion:
register here : oost_vlaanderen-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
because most of our Meetjesland is in the province of Oost-Vlaanderen (East-Flanders).
For all the Yahoo groups of the Flemish Genealogy Association see
http://svvf.be/
It's perhaps better to first read the questions of others and see how things
go before you jump in yourself. When it comes to asking something, I'd say put very
specific questions to them. In English ? Sure. Why not ? Many
Belgians are very proud of their command of the language of Shakespeare.
Where would anyone start on a question like «Could you tell me all about my Haverbeke
roots» This sounds more like "You do it all for me !"
How about checking out the Salt Lake City Genealogy Library ?
Here Lorine McGinnis
Schulze shares her tips and suggestions concerning this huge documentation
center.
Here follows the e-mail address of the President of the Meetjesland section of the VVF.
Vlaamse Vereniging for Familiekunde: Flemish Genealogy Association.
ronny.debbaut at pandora.be.
("at" in this address must of course be replaced with the at-sign and there are
no spaces in e-mail addresses.)
Suppose you wanted to find out about a "Vervenne" from Watervliet...
I meant of course Watervliet
in our Meetjesland.
If you have very detailed information you might be lucky and get a reply from the
"Bevolkingsdienst" van Sint-Laureins.
Watervliet is now administratively a part of Sint-Laureins. Bevolking = population and
bevolkingsdienst is the town's administration dealing with births, deaths, marriages and
migration into and away from the town.
Gemeente Sint-Laureins
Bevolkingsdienst
Dorpsstraat 91
9980 Sint-Laureins
Tel.: +32 9-218 76 40
Fax: +32 9-379 07 77
They are not allowed to give information about events that happened less than 100
years ago.
They will rarely search for you in the registers but if you have a name and a date of
birth for instance they should send you a copy of the birth certificate.
Open an account with GeneaNet if you haven't done so yet.
As an example, go see :
http://nl.geneanet.org/genealogie/nl/vervenne.html.
There you will find at least three genealogists whose last name is Vervenne.
They might be able to help you.
Get in touch with "Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness" and ask them. One of their members might know all about the archives where the information you're looking for is buried. He might tell you exactly where to go or he might look it up for you.
http://welcome.to/vvf
Flemish Assocation for Genealogy
Their website is in Dutch but you will find plenty of e-mail addresses.
They are a kind bunch and we're pretty sure they will try to help you out or forward your
message to someone better qualified to help.
Because it works both ways: there might be descendants in the U.S.A. of a certain
Henri Noë searching for Henri's ancestors
and we here wander what happened to Henri and hope to receive news from his descendants.
Should there be a problem (for instance the language)
please let me know.
And the other address:
http://www.vcgh.be
Vlaams Centrum voor Genealogie en Heraldiek (Flemish Center for Genealogy and Heraldry).
Also in Dutch, but I couldn't find a single e-mail address.
You may find there a list of parish registries. But that's exactly what it is, just a
list, not the registries themselves and certainly nothing you click on and get your teeth into.
For those of who you who speak Dutch or if you live in Flanders, here is a page in Dutch with similar suggestions for aspiring genealogists.
One more thing: you could also ask a professional to do all the work for you. If that's
the option you go for, I hope your expert is honest and eager to work hard.
And what if he finds nothing ? Here is Sempé's view on the matter.
Please allow us to ask you for feedback so we may improve this page
for the next guy.
What helped you most ? What didn't work ? Any suggestions ?
Please contact us.