Family tree research.
My brother Piet and I have years ago tried to find our roots, we searched many ours in the archives in Leeuwarden. We even went one time to the archive in Den Haag. The Joy you feel when you find something interesting is hardly to describe. The nice part is that the past is starting to live for you. You find birth certificates, marriage and death certificates but also buy certificates from houses, police messages from and about your grand parents. Before 1811 is the search more difficult because in the Netherlands people didn't have last names. you have to search the name of the parents out of the names of the child. Cornelis Pieters means that the father of that person was called Pieter. You can also find things in the Baptism, Marriage, and Burial books from the churches. Here you can find very little and handwritten things as: "Trijntje - Pieters housewife of Cornelis-Cornelis baptizes a child called Cornelis." It's hard to read the old handwriting, often wrote with a goose feather, but it's improving every day.
If you click the links below you can see a few pictures from our grand parents and a part of the family tree. And some links to relevant Dutch sites site's.
I can recommend everyone who has some spare time this hobby, It is very interesting and a lot of fun.
Catharines.