It's my 13th Blogiversary!

On 17 January 2013   I published my 1st post for this blog,  so  today is my  13th  blogiversary !

In those years August 2018, October 2019 and January and November 2022 were the months with the most posts. Of course it’s not about quantity, but about quality. I've tried to achieve quality by writing about topics that arouse my interest. The stories on this blog are usually not about my own ancestors, but about people who catch my attention while doing research.

Nowadays, with my own ancestors, I often find myself stuck in missing or illegible sources. Therefore, new research often depends on newly available transcriptions of sources that have become available.
In villages with mostly missing sources, like 's-Gravendeel and Sint Anthoniepolder in South Holland, I try to include many people of those and their surrounding villages in my database, hoping that someone will marry a relative of mine, I didn't know before. Occasionally, I do find a small addition this way.
Other times I find small additions in genealogical magazines.

These were Popular Blog Posts in 2025:

• The Kleinjan family and their American branch (2013)
• Anneke Jans and the Webber Controversy (2013)
• Alberdiena Rientjes was locked up in a mental institution (2025)
• Divorce and longevity for Johanna Schenk in Gouda (2025)
• Short-lived Marriage ~ Maria Fresia Kromme and Hermann Franz Kromme (2025)
• Paternal ancestors of rock star Eddie van Halen in Dordrecht (2025)

Surname Saturday - Bedé in Streefkerk

One of my 'brickwall ancestors' is Pieter Cornelisse Bedé who lived in Streefkerk, Holland. His patroniem is Cornelis, so that's his father's first name. The spelling of Pieter's surname varied quite a bit, such as Bedé, Bedee, Biddee and Bodee. It's likely his ancestors were foreigners, and the parson didn't know how to write their foreign surname. The surname could be a toponym if the family originated in Bédée, a village in Bretagne in France.

Pieter Bedé is a brother of Ariaentie Cornelisse Bedé. She married Bouwe Claesse van der Leck on 26 December 1659 in (Nieuw-)Lekkerland, Holland. They had children baptised with the names Claes, Cornelia (witnesses Dirk Cornelisse, Geertie Reijnders, Neeltie Claes), Jacob, Dirck (witnesses Jan Jansen, Jan Cornelisse, Annegie Herperts), Willem (witnesses Jan Cornelisse, Ariaentie Cornelis) and Jan.

Pieter Cornelisse Bedé married Ariaentje Cornelisse (de Groot) on 27 november 1667 in Streefkerk, Holland. They had children named Annigje (2x) and Cornelis. With his second wife, Sijchie Arijens (Aaldijk), Pieter had children named Cornelis (witnesses Pieter Arijenze, Bouwe Claeze, Cornelia Bouwenze), Ariaentje (2x) and Annigje.
Both Pieter's wives had a mother named Annechie, while Pieter's younger daughters Ariaentje may have been named after his first wife. Thus, the names of Pieter's children yield no convincing clues.

2026 Ancestor Score Completeness Statistics

Geneanet defines the Ancestor Score as 

“comparing the number of possible ancestors with 

the number of identified ancestors on a 10-generation report”. 

Inspired by the Ancestor Score - or “Completeness Statistics” - of other blogs and GeneaNet's definition above, I generated my first one in February 2016. Since then I haven't just been able to linearly increase my known ancestors. Instead, I had to remove a whole line of wrong ancestors in 2018. I could partially replace them by already existing ancestors - due to inbreeding among my ancestors.
Therefore, I decided to generate a new in-between ancestor score in August 2018 to be able to continue this series of posts (and removed the wrong one of 2017). Since then I've been gradually able to increase my number ancestors.
The generation with the most known ancestors is the 13th generation with just 21% of the theoretically maximum number of ancestors in that generation. In the 12th generation I've found 41% of the theoretical maximum (if there wouldn't be inbreeding).

Composition and Bandwidth of various Generations
Gen	Composition								Bandwidth **
	Men	Women	Total	% 2026	% 2024	% 2022	% 2020	% 2018*	% 2016	From	Until
G 3	2	2	4	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	1892	1906
G 4	4	4	8	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	1850	1880
G 5	8	8	16	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	1804	1857
G 6	16	16	32	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	1756	1832
G 7	30	30	60	100.0	93.8	93.8	93.8	93.8	93.8	1724	1802
G 8	59	59	118	118	92.2	92.2	92.2	92.2	90.6	1680	1777
G 9	114	113	227	88.7	88.7	88.7	89.1	88.3	86.7	1645	1749
G 10	209	203	412	80.5	79.9	80.1	79.7	78.7	76.4	1600	1722
G 11	348	319	667	65.1	64.5	64.4	61.8	60.8	57.0	1560	1695
G 12	454	395	849	41.5	41.4	41.0	38.4	37.3	33.8	1510	1666
G 13	493	375	868	21.2	21.1	20.0	18.7	17.9	15.7	1505	1645
G 14	456	318	774	9.5	9.3	9.0	7.3	7.1	6.1	1440	1625
G 15	351	226	577	3.5	3.4	3.2	2.3	2.0	1.6	1440	1580
G 16	217	129	346	1.1	1.0	1.0	0.6	0.6	0.5	1395	1540
G 17	119	64	183	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	1365	1500
G 18	77	41	118	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.0	1335	1470

     *) The years 2016 and 2020 feature an ancestor score of February; 2018 has an August score; 2022 and 2024 have a January score. 

   **) The Bandwidth of a generation is determined by the earliest and latest known birth or baptism date within that generation. 

   ***) I have many ancestors in places like Sint Anthoniepolder, 's-Gravendeel, Wieldrecht and Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, where pre-1800 baptism records are (mostly) missing.

Edouard Joseph Groteclaes (1831-1893) was naturalised as a Dutch citizen

Edouard Joseph Groteclaes was born on 15 October 1831 in Hombourgh. This Belgian village is located near the borders of both The Netherlands and Germany. His parents are farmer Theodoor Groteclaes and his wife Maria Anna Duijckaerts.
At the age of 28, farmer Edouard Joseph Groteclaes married 39-year-old Maria Gertrud Lucia Scheepers on 23 May 1860 in Itteren, Limburg, The Netherlands. Their daughter Maria Anna Clara Groteclaes was born in Itteren on 15 January 1862. She was just 17 years old, when she married Alexander Hubert Smeets (1852-1941) on 18 November 1879 in Itteren. They had issue.

Nederlandsche Staatscourant, 25 July 1869: Naturalisation of Edouard Joseph Groteclaes

Born in Belgium, Eduard Joseph Groteclaes was naturalised as a Dutch citizen on 15 July 1869.
Edouard Joseph Groteclaes died, at the age of 61, on 21 January 1893 in Itteren. His widow, 78-year-old Maria Gertrudis Lucia Scheepers, died in Itteren on 3 March 1900, aged 78.
Their daughter Maria Anna Clara Groteclaes was 82 years old when she died in Itteren on 27 December 1944. Her eldest daughter Maria Anna Hubertina Mélanie Smeets (1881-1972) was to reach the age of 91.

Sources: WieWasWie.nl, Delpher.nl (newspapers), HistorischCentrumLimburg.nl.