Search for Napoleon's Soldiers

In the period 1802-1815 the (in)famous Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was at war with the other European powers. The recruitment of men required for his huge army - volunteers and conscripts - was enormous, likely the largest in France - except for the First World War.

Initially, a series of military victories allowed the French Empire to exercise unprecedented control over most of Europe. During the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812, however, Napoleon's army suffered enormous losses, after which it never recovered its tactical superiority.

Unlike most armed forces at the time, Napoleon's army operated on a strictly meritocratic basis; while most contingents were commanded by French generals - except for the Polish and Austrian corps, most soldiers could climb the ranks regardless of class, wealth, or national origin.

Over 1 million soldiers have now been indexed from their military roll register records, while indexing of the remainder is ongoing. Each record contains the family name, first name, date and place of birth, parents' names, enrollment and discharge dates, and campaign records for every soldier. A link to the high-resolution scanned image hosted by France's Ministère des Armées is added, too. Most records are for French soldiers, but there are also men from other European countries like Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, and Poland.

One of those many soldiers in Napoleon's “Grande Armée” was my ancestor Arie de Sterke (1796-1892).

You can search here at GeneaNet.org :

https://en.geneanet.org/fonds/search-event/76/napoleon-s-soldiers

Note: When searching, keep in mind that a French version of the given name may have been written down, for example "Jacques" i.s.o. Jacob(us).

Further reading: Wikipedia.org

Longevity ~ Antonia Maria Huberta Receveur (98) in Venlo

Antonia Maria Huberta (“Tonie”) Receveur was born in Venlo in The Netherlands on 13 June 1867. She is one of the 10 children of  Maria Catharina Huberta Hollen (1834-1922) and Antonius Christophorus Franciscus (“Antoon”) Receveur (1814-1888). Tonie's paternal grandparents were Pierre François Michel (“Frans”) Receveur (1783-1829) and his wife Maria Ludovica Petronella Keuller (1787-1852).

Familiewapen Receveur

The Receveur family were known as sellers of fabrics (“ellewaren”) in Venlo.

Tonie Receveur was married on 16 September 1890 in Venlo, aged 23. The groom was Jean Alexandre Hubert Eugène (“Eugène”) Goossens, born on 12 August 1860 in Venlo as son of Pieter Hendrik (“Henri”) Goossens (1814-1874) and Maria Florentina Hubertina (“Florence”) Goossens (1826-1913). Florence is a daughter of Mathijs Ferdinand Goossens (1791-1869) en Maria Elisabeth Francisca (“Elisabeth”) de Borman (1792-1866) who are also ancestors of the Beltman family in Amersfoort.

Tonie Receveur and Eugène Goossens had 7 children:

1.  Maria Henriette Florentine (“Mia”) Goossens (1891-1973).
2. Elise Florentine Henriette Hubertine (“Else”) Goossens (1892-1879) married Hugo Frans Marie Hubertus van der Loo in 1893.
3. Eugène Louis Charles Hubert Goossens (1894-1967) married Engelina Mathea Maria ("Engeline") van Romondt in 1922, and had issue.
4. Antonia Elisa Maria (“Tonny”) Goossens (1896-1987) married Antonius Henricus ("Toon") van Romondt, elder brother of "Engeline".
5.  Henri Chrétien Marie Hubert (1897-1993) was an engineer.
6. Wilhelmina Carolina Maria Huberta (“Mien”) Goossens (1898-1986) married Leonardus Henricus Hubertus Maria (“Leo”) Raymakers (1896-1968), and had issue.
7. Emilie Eugénie Hubertine Marie Anne Goossens (1907-1957).
   

Passenger lists of the Holland-America Line have been digitised

The Holland-America Line (HAL) was founded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. In the period 1873-1989, it operated as a Dutch passenger line, cargo line, and cruise line, operating primarily between the Netherlands and North America. The suffix indicated the ship’s primary function - “dam” for passenger service, “dijk” for cargo. The Holland America Line - with its yellow and white funnels ringed with green stripes - has transported more than 850,000 emigrants to the New World.

The first great wave of immigration ended with the advent of World War I, during which HAL would lose 6 ships and 13 employees. At the start of the Second World War, HAL had 25 ships; 9 remained at war's end. After the war, the shipping line was instrumental in transporting a massive wave of immigrants from the Netherlands to Canada and elsewhere.

All passenger lists of the Holland-America Line covering the period 1900-1969 have now been digitised. You can easily search for family members who travelled, or emigrated, with the Holland-America Line.
The information was made available due to a joint project of the CBG (Dutch Center for Family History) and the Rotterdam City Archives that lasted three years, and is now completed thanks to the help of many volunteers.

You can search here:
    https://stadsarchief.rotterdam.nl/zoek-en-ontdek/passagierslijsten/zoeken-op-passagiers/

An example

For more information on the Holland-America Line and its former fleet, see:
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_America_Line
     https://maritime-executive.com/article/holland-america-line-history-distinction-innovation-and-growth

9-Year Blogiversary - Interesting Blog Posts

On 17 January 2013   I published my 1st post for this blog,  so  today is my  9th  blogiversary !

In those years January and August 2018 and October 2019 were the months with the most posts (5). Of course it’s not about quantity but 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 deceased people who catch my attention. 

To celebrate this 9-year milestone, here's my list featuring interesting genealogy posts from this, and other blogs.

Tips & Tricks

• Dutch Genealogy Research Tips
• The Netherlands Links at Cindi's List
• Finding European Ancestors on the Internet
• Compare to the neighbors by Yvette
• How to Find Your Dutch Ancestor’s Occupation by Yvette
• Investigate gaps between children by Yvette
• Sources for images to illustrate your Dutch family tree by Yvette
• Add an image to your blog post
• Check for improbable dates
• Was your ancestor married more than once?
• DNA and Inheritance explained by Marc
• Find relevant genealogy results in Google by using key search commands by Marian
• Tips for finding Brick-Wall Ancestors
• Mind the Chronology of a Population Register
• Checklist for starting Research in the Country of Origin
• Latin Abbreviations when doing Genealogy

Black Sheep

• Historical U.S. Prison Records Online
• Prisons, Prisoners & Outlaws at Cindi's List
• Criminal Ancestor Records at Family History Daily
• Dutch Prison Records
• Criminal Records discover black sheep ancestors by TheGenealogist
  
• Black Sheep Ancestors Sources (USA & Canada)
• How to Find Black Sheep Family in Old Newspapers by Gena
• John Dove (†1878), Jacob Shelton's murderer by Amanda
• John Carter (†1893) was hanged for murdering his 3rd wife Rhoda Titcombe by Angela
• Tonnis Willinck was shot near Winterwijk around 1593 by Yvette
• In 1668 Antoine Gaboury was found guilty of attempted rape by Yvonne
• Gerhard Linneman - erotic asphyxiation with a belt gone wrong?
• Allen Bowlin - 5x bigamy by Gwen
  
• Kundertje Dijksman (1866-1917): teenage pregnancy & divorce in Delft, Holland
• Philip Wyatt (†1892) and his 3 Elizabeths by Susan
• Madness: 
• Scottish Asylum Archives and more on Scottish ‘Lunatics’
• Edmund Frowein (1813-90) was locked up
• Joannes Abeel, "an alleged lunatic" in 18th-century Albany
• Martha Williams Saul was patient in a lunatic asylum by Nancy 
• Insane baseball pitcher Albert Charles Hungler (1860-93) by Diane
• Elisabeth Maria Comans was locked up in 1785 in Dordrecht

Leendert Ambagtsheer married his stepsister in 1746 in Hardinxveld

Leendert Ambagtsheer was baptized on on 4 January 1722 in Hardinxveld in Holland. His parents are Arij Ambagtsheer and Arij's second wife Deliana Vletter. Arij's first wife was Jannigje Blom who had died around 1714. Arij married his third wife Cornelia Stam in 1745.
Cornelia Stam was the widow of Hendrick (van der) Lusdonk. Among their children was a daughter Lijsbet (“Lijsje”) who was baptized on 4 April 1723 in Hardinxveld, Holland.

Leendert Ambagtsheer got a license to marry his stepsister Lijsbet (van der) Lusdonk on 12 November 1746 in Hardinxveld. Together they had a son Hendrik baptized on 15 January 1747 in Hardinxveld with widness Jannigje Hendriks (van der) Lusdonk. Permission for the burial of a child of Leendert Ambagtsheer was granted on 1 March.
On 14-6-1749 in Hardinxveld permission was granted for the burial of 2 children of Leendert Ambagtsheer. They may have been twins who died before they could be baptised. Lijsbeth died at the age of 31. On 25 January 1755 in Hardinxveld permission was granted to let Lijsbet be buried free of charge.

Just 4 months later, on 2 May 1755 in Hardinxveld, 34-year-old Leendert Ambagtsheer got a license to marry his second wife Neeltje Bouwman. She was baptized in Hardinxveld 12 October 1732. Her parents are Boudewijn Bouman and Hendrikje van Veen. Leendert and Neeltje had children named Deliana, Boudewijn, Hendrica, Hendrik and Arij.

2022 Ancestor Score Completeness Statistics with 5344 ancestors

Inspired by the Ancestor Score - also called “Completeness Statistics” - of other blogs and GeneaNet's definition (below), I generated my first one in February 2016. Since then I haven't been able to increase my ancestors yearly, because I also had to remove wrong ancestors*** once in a while. For that reason I had to delete the ancestor score of 2017, and created a new 2018 score in August of that year, so that's why 2017 is missing.

Geneanet defines the Ancestor Score as 

“comparing the number of possible ancestors with 

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

My Ancestor Score at generation 10 in the period 1600-1722 is 79.88%. It will always remain 79.88%, because some cousins intermarried in generation 7. The total number of my “known” ancestors - starting with my parents (generation 2) - is now 5344.
The generation with the most known ancestors is the 13th generation with 843 people. That's just 20,58% of the theoretically maximum number of ancestors in that 13th generation. In the 12th generation I've found 838 ancestors so far, and that's 40.92% of the theoretical maximum.
The human sex ratio at birth differs. Every year slightly more boys are born than girls. The ‘natural’ sex ratio at birth is around 103-107 boys per 100 girls. Genealogy is actually even more male-biased, because the males usually owned the properties, so it's mostly males that can be traced in property records when church records are missing. For example, of the ancestors found in the 13th generation 43% is female, and 57% is male. In the 16th generation it's even worse with 64% males.

My ancestors mostly originate in the provinces of South Holland and North Brabant (mostly in the part that belonged to Holland before 1800) - with in recent years an increase in the number of medieval ancestors in the province of Utrecht.

Composition and Bandwidth of various Generations
Generation	Composition									Bandwidth **
	Men	Women	Total	% 2022	% 2021	% 2020	% 2019	% 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	93.8	93.8	93.8	93.8	93.8	93.8	1724	1802
G 8	59	59	118	92.2	92.2	92.2	92.2	92.2	90.6	1680	1777
G 9	114	113	227	88.7	88.7	89.1	89.1	88.3	86.7	1645	1750
G 10	207	202	409	79.9	79.7	79.7	79.5	78.7	76.4	1600	1722
G 11	343	316	659	64.4	62.4	61.8	61.2	60.8	57.0	1560	1695
G 12	450	388	838	40.9	39.0	38.4	37.6	37.3	33.8	1510	1666
G 13	479	364	843	20.6	19.0	18.7	18.1	17.9	15.7	1505	1645
G 14	431	305	736	9.0	7.6	7.3	7.0	7.1	6.1	1440	1625
G 15	316	204	520	3.2	2.5	2.3	2.0	2.0	1.6	1440	1580
G 16	183	106	289	0.9	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.5	1395	1540

     *) The years 2016, 2019 and 2020 feature an ancestor score of February, 2018 has an August score, 2021 and 2022 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 missing.

I'm doing genealogy using the Dutch Aldfaer family tree software, and its database currently contains 145600 individuals.

Further Reading: Geneanet's Ancestor Score Definition, Equivalent Complete Generations, Identical Ancestors Point, Coefficient Of Relationship, Gender Ration, Completeness Index.