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29 May 2022

Searching the Soundtoll Registers for shipmasters sailing the Baltic Sea

The Sound Toll Registers are accounts of the dues (Deens: Øresundstold, Zweeds: Öresundstullen) which the Kings of Denmark levied on the shipping through the Sound, the strait between modern-day Denmark and Sweden. The registers from 1497 have been preserved. The registers have some gaps in the first decades, but from 1574 on the series is almost complete until 1857, when the toll was abolished.
All foreign ships passing through the strait, whether en route to or from Denmark or not, had to stop in Helsingør and pay a toll to the Danish Crown. If a ship refused to stop, cannons in both Helsingør and Helsingborg could open fire and sink it. A "ship handler" handled the paperwork at Øresund Custom House for captains in connection with Denmark's collection of Sound Dues from all ships that passed through the Øresund.

The Sound Toll Registers contain data of 1.8 million passages. Of each passage, the officials of the toll booth at Elsinore usually recorded the following data:

  • date of passage
  • name and domicile of the shipmaster
  • port of departure
  • port of destination (from the mid-1660s)
  • composition of the cargo
  • amount of toll
You can find the Soundtoll registers here:

http://dietrich.soundtoll.nl/public/advanced.php?periode=

When searching in the registers you can use the * sign to replace unknown characters.

After clicking the "Find" button you'll get the results in the right pane:

Search results in the Soundtoll Register 1634-1858

18 May 2022

Cornelis Adrianus Branderhorst left for the USA in 1895

On 20 April 1876 in a municipality in Brabant, known as "Heesbeen, Eethen en Genderen", Cornelis Adrianus Branderhorst, aged 32, married 23-year-old, and pregnant Maaike Branderhorst. She gave birth on 6 August 1876 in Genderen to a son named Pieter. I'm not sure if Cornelis Adrianus is also the boy's biological father for I can't find any more children born within this marriage.
Cornelis Adrianus Branderhorst was born on 30 July 1843 in Wijk as son of Pieter Branderhorst (1817-1893) and his wife Judick Verdoorn (1813-1881). He had a surviving sibling Adriaan Cornelis Branderhorst (1844-1878) who was a witness at his brother's wedding.
Maaike Branderhorst was born on 18 March 1853 in Genderen as daughter of Blees Branderhorst and Margrita Branderhorst (1816-1880). Maaike's elder brother Jacob was a witness at her wedding.

Cornelis Adrianus, Maaike and little Pieter were living together with the father of Cornelis Adrianus, Pieter Branderhorst sr. He was born on 11 May 1817, and died on 3 December 1892.