What Volkje Jurrianse Nordstrand looked like

Volkje Jurrianse Nordstrand (1618 - 1703)

If Jan Franz Van Husum is the first direct American ancestor of all who bear the name Van Huss, Van Hoesen, Van Hooser, et al, then one should know the name of his wife, Volkje Jurrianse Nordstrand. Volkje meaning "little falcon", Jurrianse meaning daughter of Jurri (English, George), Nordstrand, the place from which she came.

*[Volkje, pronounced like folkie, my interpretation of this name is little falcon, like the Latin "falco". Others might disagree. "Volk" means people, but "little people" seems stupid to me a a girl's name. One other possiblility is "wolf" from the "Proto-Slavic *vьlkъ, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos," and that points us back to falcon, Frisisan "wikel" where the "w" is pronounced like a "v".]

Of course no one knows what Volkje Jurrianse Nordstrand looked like. There are no photographs for she lived  from 1618 until 1703. Nor are there portrait miniatures in gouache, watercolor, or enamel as a copper locket for Volkje was a simple farm girl from Nordstrand. There are no paintings that hung on the wall of she and her husband Jan Franz Van Husum.

Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl earring

But we can still guess.

She was Dutch or Frisian, not likely Danish, though that might not matter. Families formed tribes, tribes became nations, people migrated, inter-married much like they do today. The island of Nordstrand where she lived with her parents and sister was in the Duchy of Schleswig, politically part of Denmark, but only loosely so. It was settled by many who were Dutch, but in the small villages lived the Frisians who had lived in these islands since the time before Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus who would accommodate them and bring its young men in Roman armies. It is also quite likely that the Frisians were indistinguishable from the Angles and Saxons who invaded England from the fall of the Roman empire until the seventh century. That we know from the linguistic similarity of the Frisian language and Old English.

Blonde hair or brown, blue eyes or brown, probably both types existed within the general population. Tall, medium, or short, thin or stout, anything is possible, so let us look to the old masters for help.

The Milkmaid by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, painted around 1658 when Volkje would have been 40 years old. By this time, Volkje and Jan had left Amsterdam where they lived after the flood of 1634 and sailed to New Holland and settled along the Hudson River in an estate belonging to Van Rensselaer family.

Volkje and her husband Jan learned the bakery trade, so here is a modern interpretation of a young girl and her pancakes.

To add a contemporary image to the mix, I will show you the photograph of the author, poet and linguist Albertina Soepboer.

Albertina Soepboer, copyright hers

Perhaps you will want to check Albertina Soepboer out. Image and poem are hers.


Now let us Visit a Farmhouse, courtesy of Peter Brueghal the younger, circa 1610. A peasant woman is halfway through breast feeding her young before a caldron of boiling beets, in the background the milk is churned into butter.

Lastly, I will leave you with my favorite, Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutch, Meisje met de parel) circa 1665.

A churning song

Johannes Vermeer, the Milkmaid, c. 1658

On the last day of the last year of her life on Nordstrand, Volkje and her sister Annetje would have gone about their daily tasks, rising to feed the chickens, tend the ducks, milk the cows, wash the clothes, prepare and cook the food. In 1634 a terrific gale hit the island of Nordstrand, causing the sea to break the dykes, flood the island and destroy churches, farms, and homes with great loss of life. Sixteen year old Volkje and her older sister Annetje are the only two in her family who are known to have survived.

We find her, five years later in Amsterdam, marrying Jan Franz Van Husum (Husem), and ready to depart for the New World and New Holland for a new life.

The butter churn surely followed.

‘Apron on and dash in hand
O’er the churn I stand’
Cachug, cachink!
Aching back and arms so weary

We are not so dumb as you might think
It’s just that we have no time
We must work
We milk the cows, we let it sit
While we mend, clean and cook
Then take the cream
And place it in a barrel
From which we churn and turn
Hour after hour
To make our bread and butter

And you my child, the future
You are not so smart
Yes you, who do nothing more than text
You see, oh no you don't
That iPhone in your hand is
But a stratagem to beguile
A clever ruse, a simple trick
A wile they say is free, and
All the while
They charge you out the ass
And turn your brain to mush

Bruegal, Visit to a Farmhouse

Dear Lilith

Reinier Zeeman (ca. 1623–1667 Dutch), Flooded

I often wonder what thoughts they had, what they said to each other, what they felt. They were, after all, no different than you or I, touched by human emotions.

His name was Jan, nothing more. Like all the Biblical characters, like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, a first name was enough.

He was a 30 year old sailor from Husum.

Volkje was a 20 year old farm girl from Nordstrand, brought together by a terrible storm that took thousands of lives. Her parents killed in the deluge, his occupation as a sailor likely ended with the flooding of Husum, a seaport along the tidal flats and salt marshes of Wadden Sea. Like hundreds, if not thousands, of survivors, making their way to Amsterdam. Then offered a chance to settle in the New World.

Married in Amsterdam's Nieue Kirche, where for the first he took the name Jan Van Husum. They then prepared to set sail across the Atlantic to New Amsterdam and a new life. She would be his guiding life, the mother of his children, the keeper of the house. Together they would share life's journey.

What thoughts had they, we can only imagine...

Dear Lyltsen

Dear Lyltsen, when I am with thee
(My light, my flame, my sun, my eye)
As dark as deep as night may be
When through the sky stars steer their course
No matter how dark it may be
It is light as the daylight sun for me.

But when your flare flares not unto me,
I have no star to steer my turning;
I move then blind as a stick, a stone,
Though mid-day sun is burning.
What use if the sun in my eyes is bright?
Lylts is all, my dark, my light.

Gysbert Japicx (b. 1603)

Lyltsen  (the diminutive and enduring way of referring to Lylt), possibly Lilith. In Jewish mythology, Lilith refers to a demon in the night. Volkje (Volkie and its variants) is the diminutive of  the Dutch word for falcon.

Gysbert Japicx (also Japiks; 1603–66) was a 17th century Dutch poet who wrote in Latin as well as the Frisian dialect, Friesche Rymlerye (1668; “Frisian Verse”). Japicx or Japiks spoke of his beloved Lylt in several verses. Whether she was real or just a vision is uncertain.

Life in the Netherlands

Historically, it is important to know that the nation state of the Netherlands only came into being in 1596 when the kings of France and England arranged a treaty with the Republic of the United Netherlands, giving the fledgling state international recognition. The Kingdom of Spain continued to wage war on the Dutch until 1609 when they too recognized Dutch independence. The North Friesland coast where Jan Fanz Van Husum originated was for the most part a "vast swampy moor." Husum was a seaport and it is likely that Jan, who was a sailor, sailed into the North Atlantic to catch cod. Because of its remoteness from Amsterdam and the major Dutch cities, Husum and the island of Nordstrand escaped the fighting between the Spanish and the Dutch. Dutch engineers had come to the island of Nordstrand to battle the sea and reclaim the land.

It was not a battle they could win.

Go stroll along the sandy dunes and march through the muddy marshes. See the world the way they saw it. For a good article on Dutch life in the 16th and 17th century with images go to the following link:

Nederland naar ’t leven: Een inleiding

The Autobiography of Jan Franz Van Husum

Tuinstraat Today

As I closed the door of our home for the last time, Volkjie, my wife of two weeks said, “Goodbye sweet life.” “What?” I replied, for it had not been sweet or easy. Amsterdam is a city reclaimed from the sea, each day new people arrive, competing for the few scarce jobs and fewer places to live.

I am a seagoing man, able to eke out a living catching mackerel in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, but the catches are fewer and further away. It is not an easy life. Volkje, who once gathered Eider eggs in the marshes of the North Strand and drove geese to the city markets, now sells tulips for farthings in the local market. It is not an easy life.

Hand in hand we left Tuinstraat, and the place we called home.

Stille Nacht

I often remind myself that though we are different in many ways, we are one family sharing a belief in a greater goodness.

Johannes Van Husum and his wife Volkie, spoke either Dutch or German. They came from the Cimbrian Peninsula, now called Jutland, an area inhabited by the ancient tribes of Cimbri and Jutes. Johannes lived in the coastal town of Husum. It is for this reason, that the name Van Huss and Van Hoesen and all the other variations owes its existance. Volkie Van Nordstrand grew up on the adjacent island of Nordstrand.

Tragedies are both devastating and uplifting. They define the human spirit, for no matter how deep and difficult the loss, it is the human spirit to rise above difficulties and persevere. So it was on the night of October 11, 1634, when a devastating flood swept over the island of Nordstrand and much of the coast, killing thousands and rendering many thousands more homeless as winter approached.

The story of  the flood and its aftermath is best told by Cor Snabel.

But what Cor Snabel doesn't tell us is that a young Volkie and her sister survived the storm, even though they lost their parents. Volkie and Jan would meet, move to Amsterdam. They fell in love, married and set sail to the New World two years later.

The German language and its Dutch variation lingered on in America for well over two centuries. And it is known that many of the descendants of Jan and Volkie spoke German in their homes. This was true at least until the lives of  Valentine Van Huss and his son Mathias, who lived in Tennessee. This became known when a modern descendent discovered hidden in a barn two religious books written in German.

It is to Valentine and Mathias, to Jan and Volkie and to all those who have suffered tragedy in life that I dedicated this beautiful rendition of Silent Night in the original German.

May you know the peace of God's mercy.

 

Willem Juriaensz

What is in a Name

Off the coast of Schleswig, in the North Sea, lay the island of Nordstrand. Here, in 1618, was born to Wilhelm Jurianse a daughter, Volkie. Then in 1634, Nordstrand was destroyed by a devastating flood, and Volkie and her sister Annetje Juriaens survived and were taken to the coastal town of Husum. Their parents were killed in the storm.

Yet, in the records of New Amsterdam there are several references to Willem Juriaensz?

As I will relate below, Willem number two, late in his life, lived with Jan Van Husum and Volkie Jurriens in Claverack, offering to teach them how to bake. The difference in name spelling can be attributed to language. The German language uses the letter ẞ/ß (called eszett (sz) or scharfes S, sharp s. Dutch has no such letter. As we will see below, the name was also spelled Jurrianse and Jurriaanse.

I did find one tie in that seemingly connects both Willem and Volkie. But before we get to that, let's hear the story.

The Story

Willem Jurianesz settled in the colony of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, arriving in the fall of 1638 (Jan and Volkjie arrived in the summer of 1639). Willem's occupation was given as Captain. But he also earned a living as a baker, and, at least once, for providing lumber from a saw mill in which he may have had an interest. Beginning as early as 1644, he was in trouble with his neighbors for various misdeeds.

Read online from the New York State Library the Van Rensselaer Bowier manuscripts: being the letters of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer.Page 820 concerns Willem Juriaensz, alias Backer, alias Capitaijn. On the following pages at 821 and 822 are seven passengers on Den Harinck, which arrived in New Amsterdam the following summer. Missing are the names of Jan and Volkie.

This short biographical sketch of Willem is given in O'Callaghan, History of New Netherland, 1:437-38, and online at Ancestry.com's list of Rensselaerswyck Settlers 1630-1658.  (The listings are chronological and Willem Jurianensz is three quarters of the way down.) This is a reprint of the New York State site.

A more complete account of Willem is given in Beverwijck: a Dutch village on the American frontier, 1652-1664, by Janny Venem.

The biographical sketch notes that Willem was often at odds with other settlers and frequently hauled before the authorities. He was twice ordered to be banished from the colony, but the sentence seems not to have been carried out.

Willem was getting up in age and Jan and Volkie agreed to take him in. In exchange for his keep, Willem would agree to teach Volkie and Jan how to bake. Willem apparently refused to keep up his end of the contract as he would hide the baking utensils. A final entry contains this note:

Nov. 30, 1651, Willem Juriaensz declared that he refused to fulfil his contract with Jan van Hoesen, dated Jan. 30, 1650, and Jan. 18, 1652, the court gave Jan van Hoesen permission to occupy the erf (lot, or bakery) of Willem Juriaensz, on condition that the latter be allowed to dwell in his house as long as he lived ofte de gelegenheijt presenteert (or an opportunity for removing to another place presented itself).

Jan and Volkie would continue with their bakery after Willem died. Indeed, Volkie would continue the trade after her husband's death. And the bakery would serve for yet another legal squabble, but that is a different story.

A Connection? 

Was there a family connection between Willem Juriaensz and Volkje Jurriens. If so, there is no mention of it in the biographical sketch.

The bio reports that Willem sailed on the ship de Liefde [the Charity] from the Texel September 25, 1638, arriving at New Amsterdam, December 27, 1638. Joyce Lindstrom reports that Jan and Volkje, after marrying in the Dutch Reformed Church in Amsterdam, set sail on the ship "Den Harlinck" [usually spelled Den Harinck]in May of 1639, arriving in New Amsterdam on July 7, 1639.

The connection is finally found in another source.  If you go to familysearch.org and do a search of the name Jurriaens you get a connection:

18. Volkje JURRIAANSE - Ancestral File Gender: F Birth/Christening: Abt 1618 Noorstrand Islan, , Schleswig-Holste, Germany

19. Wilhelm JURRIANSE (VAN NOORDSTRANT) - Ancestral File Gender: M Birth/Christening: Abt 1592 , , Netherlands

Volkie ties into Jan Van Husum (Van Hoesn) and the island of Nordstrand. Willem ties into the island of Nordstrand as well and is the correct age. This might suggest that Willem and Volkie were uncle and niece.