LL-L "History" 2009.08.22 (05) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 22 August 2009 - Volume 05
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From: Hellinckx Luc <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "History"

Beste Ron,

>From what I understand from the introduction, these are not passengers but
VOC *employees*:

You can change the interface in the top right corner into English or German
if you like.


   1. The essential crewmen necessary to sail the ship. Following arrival in
   Asia some of them are enlisted for inter-Asian trade routes.
   2. Craftsmen for the settlements in Asia.
   3. Soldiers.
   4. The rest, for example junior merchants, preachers, surgeons etc.

Yes, in a way they are passengers since they are not mariners, but the VOC
was not only a shipping line but essentially a colonial enterprise with
varying interests and powers, and these employees were sent overseas to run
the enormous operation. Since these are persons in the employ of this
concern, and considering the times, this explains why relatively few women
are listed.

There were midwives on board. Those were of course also intended to provide
service in the colonies I guess. Moreover, a whole bunch of captains were
female! Given the times, this really surprises me.

As you can see, there was no spelling standard and place names tended to be
written hollandized. The same went for personal names.

Indeed, Flemish and Brabantish names have also been hollandized. No wonder,
this was a time, when the Holland variety of Dutch was very dominant. More
than 500 travellers appear to have given Halle as place of origin. Looking
at the surnames, I'm quite sure these are other "Halle's" than the one in
Brabant I'm living in.

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx, Halle, Brabant

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: History

Indeed, indeed, dear Luc. This is a fine resource to rummage around in,
isn't it?

I too have the feeling that in many cases "Halle" stands for Halle in other
places than yours:

   - Halle in Gelderland, the Netherlands
   - Halle in the Dukedom of Bentheim, now Germany
   - Halle in Westphalia, Germany
   - Halle in Holzminden, Weser Mountains, Lower Saxony, Germany
   - Halle upon Saale, now in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany,
   place of birth of Georg Friedrich Händel (George Frideric Handel), of
   George Friedrich Müller (evangelist and coordinator of orphanages in
   Bristol, England), and of the American painter Lyonel Feininger, and of
   Reinhard Heydrich (of Nazi "fame"), also a major refuge for French Huguenots

There were midwives on board.

That makes sense. In those times "white" ladies would not have wanted "East
Indians" and such to fiddle about around their nether regions.

Duh! It's only now that I realized that you can click on any underlined name
and find out more about a "passenger". How cool is *that*?

All people called Niekerk (our Elsie's maiden name) ended up at the Cape.
One of them, Niclaas, was very, very naughty: he deserted!

There were two guys called Christiaan Hellinx that I suspect are really one,
from Utrecht, traveling on two ships, one to Sri Lanka and one to South
Africa, both in the year 1782. And there's a bunch of guys called Hellings,
most of them from Limburg.

There were three persons from New York (Nieuw Amsterdam), apparently all of
Dutch origin.

There are some people whose names suggest origin or descent other than the
ones the listed places of origin suggest. For instance, there is an Ignatus
Skelitskij from Edinburgh. A Francisco Lopes of Milan may be of Iberian
origin, perhaps Portuguese.

Folks, when you play around with this resource remember that you can use ?
as a wildcard.

Thanks again for the terrific tip, Luc. It's oodles of Lowlandic fun and
games.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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