Wordless Wednesday - Newest Leaf on the Family Tree (Part 2)

 

Part 1: https://timhavenithfamilytree.blogspot.com/2015/07/wordless-wednesday-newest-leaf-on.html

Me and my sister. My son and his.

I've been on a project to crop out hundreds of photos from scans. These are from the collection of my mum. I tend to scan 2 or 3 per page, save the whole project as a PDF for accession to my Family Tree spreadsheet as well as saving each scan page as a TIF. I then crop out each photo, which remains a TIF.

I found this quite an emotional project because I was going through photos that documents events through 5 generations of my family.

While going through the photos, I came across the one below. I'm holding my sister and our auntie Veronique is sitting with us. Along this I've put a photo of my son, Noah, who is holding his day old sister. The photo of them was taken on 12 September, 2018.

I just liked that while these events capture an event that was unique, but these events happen during each generation. Each time this happens it is extremely special to the people involved, and yet is common throughout many families.

Tim Havenith holding Naomi Brown (left), Noah Havenith holding Ellie Havenith (right).

The Euro coins

My mum (Brigitte Havenith) once gave my opa (Jan Havenith) a journal to complete entitled 'This is dad's life'. In it, there was once question: What have been the biggest changes you’ve seen in your lifetime?

In answer to this question, part of his reply was: "The arrival of the Euro."

The handwriting of Jan Havenith

When the Euro did arrive, I remember opa giving me 2 coins, dated 1999, featuring Beatrix, the Queen of The Netherlands at the time. They were a 1 Euro coin and a 2 Euro coin. He made me feel like these were special, so I resolved to keep them. For a long time, the were kept together with black eletrical tape (doh!), but these days they are kept in a plastic coin bag and will be properly stored in future. Below are the front and obverse of the coins he gave me.

Jan Havenith and Ida Magermans - Marriage Plate

This beautiful plate was made by Frans van Gerwen, a cousin of Ida Magermans, who worked at a factory that made that porcelain. This factory called Mosa, is based in Maastricht and is still going.

These days the focus seems to be on tiles and since 2005 have had a turnover of 100 million. However, searching the Internet reveals a healthy market place for the old Mosa plates and ceramics.

I've always appreciated this plate as I saw it hanging on the wall everytime I visited my grandparents. It's in such amazing condition for a plate that's over 60 years old.

The company can be found here.

Tim Havenith and Lucy Newbury: Wedding Locations

Registering for the wedding

This was the register office in Trowbridge when we registered for our wedding in October 2013.

These days it's a car park!

Night before the wedding

Lucy stayed with her mum and sister the night before the wedding.

I stayed with my visiting family at our previous house at Tower Road, Melksham.

Wedding Day

We were married at Devizes Register Office at 2pm on the 30 May, 2014.

We then followed this with photographs and a meal at the Shaw Country Hotel.

Followed by cake back at Tower Road!

Tim Havenith - Birth Plate

This beautiful birth plate was made for me by my opa's (Jan Havenith) best friend, Toon van Hoof, who he had originally met in the early days of his career at DSM. Sadly I never got to meet him as he died when I was around 2 years old, but I'm very honoured to have this wonderfully crafted plate as a reminder.

Ida Magermans: social smoking

When I visited my grandparents bac in 2017, I spent a lot of time talking to them about current events as well as past events.

My opa (Jan Havenith) suffers from COPD from smoking when he was younger and from this he told me that oma (Ida Magermans) used to smoke in social situations. He mentioned that the height of her smoking was while they lived in the US, but that when the returned to the Netherlands, she eventually stopped.

I'm certainly glad that she did. It would be horrible if they both had to suffer this horrendous condition.

Ida Magermans: Workplace in Heerlen, Limburg

Prior to getting married, oma (Ida Magermans) worked in this building, which was a maternity hospital, opened in 1923 by Queen Wilhelmina. Oma worked in the lab doing blood work. She still has this photographed framed on the wall at their home. It must have meant a great deal to her. It was given to her by her colleagues as a leaving present.

At the time is was common for women getting married to leave their jobs and be financially supported by their husbands.

These days the building is a residential living community (Parc Imstenrade), but prior to this 80,000 babies were born here and it's now a national monument (no. 506441).  Here is a Google Streetview of the building and the address is Parc Imstenrade 3, 6418 PP Heerlen.

Friese staartklok

This clock is very important to me as it has been hanging on the wall of my grandparents houses my whole life. In fact, it has seen many generations and was bought by Johannes Saris (1873-1959) and then passed down to his eldest child, Hubertina Saris.

Oma and Opa, Second World War

I recently had an opportunity to speak briefly about World War II with my Opa and Oma, who live in Heerlen, Limburg, The Netherlands.

My oma, Ida Magermans, told me that the Nazi soldiers were a daily sight in the area. She mentioned that when the American soldiers arrived, there was a time when she had put orange flowers on the table to show their support, but then heard shots being fired. Oma and her family rushed down into the cellar, but then oma remembered the flowers. She had to creep upstairs to hide the flowers, which she managed to do, before retreating back into the cellar.

Opa, Jan Havenith, mentioned that the Nazi soldiers took over the school building, which meant that the kids had to continue their schooling at different houses.

Both said that they remembered those years very well, but I didn't want to ask to many questions about this period of their lives. I was glad that they didn't have to suffer the Hongerwinter that occurred in the western provinces during the Winter of 1944/45 as Limburg had been liberated during 1944, while the western provinces had to wait until the May of 1945.

Book Review: Research Your Surname by Dr. Graeme Davis

This book is short and focused ad because of this, it was the perfect first book to learn about surnames. Each chapter is sub-divided so that there is a paragraph or two on each single topic, for instance, surname drift or Norman England.

This is such an accessible book that has made me feel much more confident with my surname studies and given me clear directions on what I should be looking for and where my research should be headed. While I had already realised that I needed to go back as far as possible to get as close as possible to the origin of surnames in my family, I can also use distribution maps when I find that my family lived in certain areas. I also need to spend time looking for place names, occupations, or topographical features in those areas that may have originally provided the origin of individual surnames. The author teaches us to be sceptical of convenient surname definitions, for instance is it likely in a country where brown hair is very common that the surname Brown would be given due to hair colour?

I have some very common surnames, such as Brown, which this book helpfully describes and tells me that the research on this surname doesn't provide a clear definition. I also have surnames that aren't English and aren't common worldwide, never mind in Britain, so there is no definition I'm aware of, only the research I've been conducting - but this book is helpful for that too - as I've written about in the paragraph above.

There are some excellent chapters on surnames of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. A reasonable amount of history described means that the reader can get a real sense of the events of the period that surnames were formed - and why certain surnames occur in certain areas.

If you'd like to begin surname research, or just get a better grasp of what a surname is - then read this book. It's short, so won't take up too much time; but full of very useful information. An added bonus is how readable it is. Give it a go!

Wordless Wednesday - Newest Leaf on the Family Tree

Surname: Havenith

The most recent generations of my family are from Limburg in the Netherlands, so that is where I started with attempting to find the origin of the surname. During the same time, I scoured the Internet for the possible meaning of HAVENITH and came across a few variants along the way (discussed here). 

This post documents what I've found so far.

Surname: Havenith - variants in my family tree

On my quest to find my earliest recorded HAVENITH ancestor, I have come across a few different variants. Most connected to my family, but a couple that I've seen in the same scanned collections as the records I was looking for.

Here are the variants I've found so far, in chronological order:

The earliest record I've been able to find so far is a marriage record from sometime in 1696 for Joannes and Odilia. I say sometime, as it appears to be the only record not given a day and month! It is located between marraiges records on 4 July and record is 4 9bris (November), so is likely to have taken place between those dates. In this record the spelling is HAVENIT.

HAVENIT

Moving on to 1701 and we have a baptism record for their son, Joannes Hubertus, who later used the name Hubert. This time the surname is spelt: HABENIT.

HABENIT

In 1732, Hubert got married to Cathar(ina) Emonts. At this time, the surname was written as HAVENIET.

HAVENIET

In 1754 we find the first usage of HAVENITH. This is Joannes, Hubert's son, marrying Anna Elisabetha EMONS. You will notice that JANSSEN is appended to HAVENITH. This is likely to be the priests way of remembering which HAVENITH he is - although more commonly we see place names appended in this way. It may be the surname of the person who owns his accommodation or perhaps his employer and may therefore be a 'house' or 'farm' name [1].
As family historians we work from the child (the known) backwards to parent and extended family (the unknown): It was from Joannes' baptism record that I found the name of his parents. From searching the scanned collections, there are only 1 Joannes HAVENITH and Anna Elisabetha EMONS that got married, so I feel confident that I have the correct people.

HAVENIET

Joannes, had a son Joannes Josephus baptised in 1760. We see that the JANSSEN hasn't followed him and that the current spelling of HAVENITH has remained stable.

HAVENITH

But that stability doesn't remain! 

We then have HAVENIETH which starts with Johannes Josephus and continues until 1902 when my GGgrandfather is born with HAVENITH.
While HAVENIETH remains stable during these generations in the official records, the people themselves tend to sign their name as HAVENITH. I'm not sure if this is because HAVENIETH was seen as an official or formal spelling, but eventually the modern spelling won out.

HAVENIETH

My Ggrandfather's birth record. We're finally back to HAVENITH in 1902 and this spelling continues in my family up to the present day - including my son, who was born in 2015.

HAVENITH

The following two images show what appear to be variants and in the same area (Liège, Belgium), but do not seem to be related to my ancestors:

HAAFFNIT

HAFFNIT

References1) Kimberly Powell. (nd). German Surnames - Meanings & Origins. Available: http://genealogy.about.com/cs/surname/a/german_surnames.htm. Last accessed 25/06/2015.

Web Resources: Google Street View

When conducting genealogical research, I find that it's far too easy to fall into the trap of spending a lot of time chasing birth, marriage, and death records to further the line you're working on. Often (depending on the country you're researching), these BMD records, along with other sources, such as obituaries will provide addresses of where our ancestors lived at the time.

So, when I want a break from BMD records, I head straight over to Google and have a look at Street View. Of course, houses may well have changed since your ancestors resided there - or that street you're looking for may not even exist these days, but it's enjoyable to have a virtual wander around these locations.

Following a Dutch baby tradition: Beschuit met muisjes

As I may have mentioned, we recently welcomed our first child into the world. In the months prior to the birth I asked around for English traditions to welcome babies. There really only seemed to be two, neither of which seemed as fitting as the Dutch tradition, which has been celebrated in my Dutch family for a long time.

Newest member of my family tree

Family Tabletop Games

I've always enjoyed tabletop games, mainly playing different board games. For the past few years, the tile-placement game, Carcassonne, has been our game of choice due to the mechanic of picking tiles blind out of a bag, which provides a randomness that keeps the game interesting - and, of course, the many expansions that provides a wide range of extra tiles and features.

Carcasonne has been played by three generations of my family; myself, my mum and my niece. However, there is a game that has been played by at least five generations of my family over many decades. The game is called veertigen, veertigleggen or the name favoured by my family: Jokeren.