Gertruida's Cousin

With scheduled consultant duties at the Family History Library and no patrons, I checked in to FamilySearch to see what it had for me. There was a birth record belonging to a possible ancestor. It was in Amsterdam and I thought, "Well, I'm not that good with Dutch records or the language so I'm not so sure if I can confirm this as a good source."

Looking at it, I noticed it had an address for the birth, Willemstraat 99, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland. And on FamilySearch our guy, Cornelis Johannes van der Moot, supposedly had three sisters in an already existing family group. His birth fit nicely in between two of them with a couple of years on either end.

So I checked for a birth record for a sister to see if it had an address. Sure enough, 99 Willemstraat. And the parents were a perfect match. There was even the correct maiden name for his mother. So I attached the record establishing Cornelis and providing temple work to be done for him.

Then FamilySearch said there was a marriage record for Cornelis. I looked at that. The parents were the same. The age was right. But Amsterdam is a big place.

Clicking around a bit, I saw that his wife, Maria Isabella Agneta Hermant,was already in FamilySearch. In fact, he was there too but only from an extraction name with a child. The marriage record fit with her husband, Cornelis, and his age, so I clicked it in and then had to do a merge for both him and his wife. It all fit together and I had sources to cite from the match with his birth record to the family and address.

And having an address, I went to Google Maps. There it is, Willemstraat 99.

It looks like a modern building. But, I don't know, some on that street could go back to 1862, maybe.

Thinking I'd better check to see how he was related to me, I clicked "relationship" and he was Gertruida's first cousin! They didn't live that far apart either. Two of my sons visited the location of Gertruida's house on recent visits to Amsterdam for work and school respectively.

Small world.