Volkje Juriaens van Noorstrant

Volkje Juriaens "Volkie" van Nordstrand van Husum (1618 - 1703)

"My name is Volkje.

If the spelling is unfamiliar to you it is because it has been spelled many ways. Coming from the island of Nordstrand in the Wadden Sea, the language we spoke was a combination of Dutch, Frisian, Danish and German. I am Frisian, my parents told me. For most of my life, I could neither read nor write. If asked to sign my name I did so with an X."

I was well-named by my mother and father, who called me their little falcon, the wandering one who searches the coastline with keen eyes looking for the eggs of seagulls and terns. My sister Annetje  prefers to stay at home and tend the geese.

It is the falcon for whom I am named, to be more precise, the little falcon.

The autobiography of Volkje Van Husum 

What she looked like

She was little she was pert, and had soft grey eyes the color of the winter sky. In the mornings in the mudflats along the banks of the Wadden Sea, she could be found gathering eggs from the nests of the waders, geese, ducks and gulls that nest in the marshes. From time to time, she would stop to watch the grey seals swimming in the dark blue-green water or resting on the sand, but more often she could be seen gazing into the grey sky watching the falcon soaring overhead and plummeting to earth in pursuit of their prey.

The painting

The painting is signed "IVMeer" but not dated. It is estimated to have been painted around 1665.

That is all wrong, if one is to suppose that Volkje was the subject of the painting, The Girl with the Pearl Earing by Johannes Vermeer. First, Volkje spent time in Amsterdam, living on Tuinstraat, close to the home and studio of the great painter Rembrandt von Rijn. Vermeer, the painter, lived out his life in the Dutch city of Delft. Lastly, we can guess that Volkje was born in the year 1615, or thereabouts, making her too old for the young girl in the painting.

The girl with the pearl earing, by Johannes Vermeer

Nordstrand

Nordstrand, an island in the North Sea of the Frisian coast

Image from Wikipedia

1634

Nordstrand, the home of Volkje Jurriaens, was once a much larger island encompassing many villages and thousands of people. In 1634 a great flood (Burchardi) swept the island destroying many of the villages and killing thousands.

Nordstrand sits off the western coast of the Jutland peninsula, near the port of Husum. Historically, it and the other islands and marshes in the area were called Uthlande (Utlande). They were identified as such because the islands and marches were inhabited by Frisians, a distinct ethnic group.

The island and city are located in the province of Schleswig, which can be imagined as that slice of the southern Jutland peninsula that separates Denmark from Germany. Schleswig has always been a melting pot of Danes, Germans, and Frisians. Today, Schleswig is divided between Germany and Denmark, Germany possessing both Nordstrand and Husum.

So, the question arises, "Who do the inhabitants of Nordstrand come from - Vikings, Danes, Saxons, Jutes, Frisian or Dutch?"

Roman History

The Eider River is the longest river in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Roman history places the Jute tribe to the north of the Eider River, Angles to the south, with Saxons in territory adjoining the Angles.

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, the population was a mixture of Danes, Saxons, and Northern Frisians. The Frisians inhabited the coastal areas. From the 8th to 13th centuries, Vikings in their longboats ranged throughout Europe. King Canute of Denmark even launched a successful invasion of England in 1016.

Schleswig

Schleswig is both a city and province in Germany. The Duchy of Schleswig appears as a political entity sometime around the 12th century.

detail Danorum Marca, 1588 by Mark Jorden

The detail of the map of Jutland highlights the island of Nordstrand, identified as De Strant and neighboring Husum (Husem). For reference, the Eider River flows to the south of Nordstrand and Husum. The river is the dividing line between Schleswig and Holstein, a province often associated with Schleswig.

The map of 1588 identifies at least 18 small villages on the island. Johannes Blaeu's later map of 1688 reveals the damage to the island, the flood destroying all but four of the villages, leaving only the villages of Pilworm (Pellwurm), Gpell, Gaickebull and Odenbull.

The question remains as to whether Jan Franz Van Husum and Volkje Jurriaens were Dutch or Frisian. That question probably can't be answered. But what is known is that the Frisian dialect was spoken throughout Nordstrand before the flood. Afterwards, the dialect was kept intact only on the small remaining island of Pellwurm where industrious farmers quickly rebuilt the dikes after the flood.

Detail, Johannes Blaeu's 1662 map of the Duchy of Schleswig

Detail from Johannes Blaeu's,  Ducatus Sleswicum sive Iutia Australis, 1662. Original image, Wikipedia.

Now look at a modern view of Nordstrand from Google maps.

Nordstrand, Google Maps 2013

Volkje and Annetje Jurriaens are both identified in later documents as coming from Nordstrand. What they or their parents did is lost to history, but reference is made to the fact that their parents died in the flood of 1634. In 1639, Volkje married Jan Franz Van Husum. Je is identified as coming from the neighboring town of Husum, but again there is little detail, other than a reference to his occupation as seafaring man in his marriage certificate to Volkje. A month after thier marriage, they sailed across the Atlantic in the ship Den Harinck, arriving in the port of New Amsterdam. Annetje also married and emigrated to the New Netherlands.

While the article is being written, you can visit the island in photos.

[Note about Spellings. The spelling of names vary for many reasons. Language differences account for many of the differences. Maps may contain Latin words, a marriage license might be in Dutch, and German, and Flemish might also enter into the equation. Then there is the lack of a uniform code of spelling that existed at the time. The first English dictionary was drafted in 1604, and Samuel Johnson's more famous Dictionary was not published until 1755. The first known Dutch dictionary was published by Cornelius Kiliaan in 1599.]

Disaster - the Flood of 1634

If you are looking for the event that brought Jan Fransse Van Husum and Volkje Juriens together than it is surely the flood of October 11, 1634. This flood was one for the history books. It struck the island of Nordstrand and the neighboring coastal town of Husum on the night. Thousands of lives were lost.

Hardest hit were the North Frisian Islands off the western coast of Schleswig. Among these was the island of Nordstrand where Volkje lived with her parents and sister Annetje. Jan live in the neighboring port city of Husum.

Much has been written by Joyce Lindstrom and others as to whether Jan and Volkje were Frisians, Dutch, German, or even Danish. I doubt there is a simple answer. Originally, the area was settled by the ancient Frisians who were know as far back as Roman times. Then again, by 1634, the area had been settled by numerous Dutch immigrants who were in the process of reclaiming land from the sea with the use of dykes and windmills. After the flood of 1634, hundreds, if not thousands, of survivors made their way to Amsterdam. A number of these emigrated to America.

The storm was intense. Dikes, which had held up for more than 100 years, were destroyed. Over 6,000 people died, dozens of towns were washed away. The island of Nordstand, where 16 year old Volkje lived with her parents and sister, was inundated and broken up into several smaller islands.The town of Husum, just to the east of Nordstrand, was likewise devastated. Farms were rendered useless by the salt water that covered the fields and saturated the ground.

Volkje parents did not survive the storm. Afterwards, she was taken to the neighboring town of Husum. There she met Jan Fransse Van Husum.

The map, dated 1652, to the left is by Johannes Blaeu. The large island of Nordstrand was submerged and broken up into several smaller islands. Blaeu's map shows the majority of the island still underwater in 1652. Those who survived went back to the ancient custom of building houses on a hillock as a defense against the floods.

A chilling eye-witness account of the storm exists. Cor Snabel's story of the Nordstrand flood of 1634.

There was nothing left in Husum and Nordstrand for Jan and Volkje. Later records would reveal that land reclaimed by the sea not recovered by owners reverted to the state. Other settlers were brought in in order to reclaim former lands.

At some point, Jan and Volkje would move to Corte Tuijnstraat in Amsterdam. The word "corte" is Spanish for court or section, and the street (straat) Tuijnstraat still can be found in Amsterdam. The street is just around the corner from the Anne Frank House. It is a little further to the house of  Rembrandt van Rijn, who was then an up and coming painter. Rembrandt married his bride Saskia in the same year as the flood.And in 1639, bride and groom purchased a house on the Jodenbreestraat. Unhappily, Saskia would die two years later.

Jan and Volkje's marriage fared better. In 1639, they would marry in the Nieuwe Kirk of the Dutch Reformed Church. Within months, Jan and Volkje were on their way to New Amsterdam, then to Upstate New York.

There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people living in the United States who owe their lives to the flood of 1634. My father in law and wife are among the group. Interestingly, Gary Boyd Roberts in Ancestors of American Presidents, p. 13, 269, lists Jan Fransse Van Husum as the sixth great-grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., 26th President of the United States of America.