De Oude Kerk, Amsterdam

Today I visited De Oude Kerk (The Old Church) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  The building was constructed around 1300 and is still in use as a church, among other pursuits.  Currently the Church houses an art exhibit from the Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy.

The floor is comprised of gravestones.  Wealthy people paid to be buried inside the Church.  A computer database exists of the burials for your use within the church or online.  Stones and records can be found for burials from the 1500s through the 1800s.

Floor of gravestones, with the buried underneath.

Backer Family side by side for centuries.

You can look up graves by their location within the Church.

You can also browse or search names.  Keep in mind that spellings were not uniform.

Gravestones could be used again by scratching off someone's name.

Close-up of removed inscription of a prior occupant.

The room of the Graeff grave is occupied by this piece of artwork.

Art display:  an unmade bed.

Partial gravestone.

Dangling art.

More art.

Note written on napkin on side of kiddie pool.
I do not know if this is part of the art.

Art display.

Art display of dirt, not a fresh burial.

Me on the stairs inside the Church.  No heat.

Copper plaques from coffins.

Plaque from coffin.
Ida Cornelia Deutz, wife of
Robbert Jan Neel
died 4 March 1807

Morristown and Morris Township Library

Last week I attended a tour of the Morristown and Morris Township Library’s North Jersey History and Genealogy Center, organized by the Morris Area Genealogical Society.  The collections include resources local to Morris County, such as microfilmed church records, as well as resources that cover all of New Jersey and some neighboring states.  Morris County newspapers are digitized and available on the library computers only.  Indexes of these newspapers were compiled over the years and are in book form.  (Palladium of Liberty 1808-1822 and Genius of Liberty 1798-1811 are online and searchable at GenealogyBank.com with a subscription.)  Tens of thousands of photographs are being scanned and are appearing online gradually.

The church collection includes microfilmed records from the First Presbyterian Church of Dover.
Events of the church, such as christenings and marriages, are some of the records you can find.
If a cemetery was attached to the church, burial records may also be included.

Sample page contained in the microfilmed records of the First Presbyterian Church in Dover.
This is a page from the listing of marriages performed by Reverend Burtis C Megee from 1840-1876.

Church recordings of events may provide additional details not contained in an official government record.
In this 1872 marriage record of Andrew Erickson to Mary Halstrom, Rev. Burtis mentions the full names of all four parents and adds that the bride has been "only one month in this country, from Sweden."
Note that Andrew Erickson's last name is not his father's last name, but rather his father's first name followed by "son."

Over the years, authors and researchers sent their genealogical manuscripts to the Library.
You can search for books on a particular surname or family.
This find was not a book, but rather a series of newsletters about the Ayars family, with a catchy title, "Ayars Heirs."

The Local History Room

Today I had the opportunity to visit the Albert Wisner Public Library in Warwick, Orange County, New York.  I was researching an event that took place in Warwick- that post is forthcoming.  The staff was helpful and knowledgeable.  (And so were the other patrons with directions!)  I made use of the local history room.  I recommend asking for and visiting such a room whenever you visit a library.  You never know what you may find.  I found a 1924 book with grave inscriptions from Dutchess County, New York.  You probably would not expect to find Dutchess County material in Orange County, but that is why I recommend browsing the "local" history collection yourself.

I found a listing for a small, private cemetery in Pawling for the Campbell family.  This may or may not be the same Campbell family that I am following in Dutchess County, but now the possibility has entered my mind and can be explored further.  A check of findagrave reveals that someone else has already ventured through the vegetation and photographed these stones, saving me from adding this cemetery to my ever-growing to-do list.  In due time I may have come across this cemetery through other means, but that is true of so many of the treasures that we find.  So check those local history rooms!

I take these pictures with an iPhone.  This enables me to go paperless.  I have boxes of genealogical papers and welcome not having to add to the overflow as more and more genealogical resources become available.  I also tend to copy more items.  It's free and saves me the hassle of requesting permission to photocopy, locating a working copier, and finding change or acquiring a copy machine card.  Once saved on my computer, I can easily search for files instead of rummaging through boxes.  I can also email an image immediately if the find is so wonderful that it needs to be shared quickly.