WIT
WIT
Introduction
Dear visitor, on this page you will find some data relating to my family tree. I am Hubrecht Peter Houtzagers, born April 17, 1953 at Ede, The Netherlands. My father was Petrus Johannes Houtzagers (The Hague 1919 – Soest 2005) and my mother was Francina Maria de Pree (Alkmaar 1922 – Amersfoort 1980). I am retired since 2019, I worked as an associate professor of Slavic linguistics at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.
What I know about my ancestors and other relatives is, of course, incomplete, and the degree of incompleteness is higher in some parts of the family tree than in others. This is partly accidental and partly due to the fact that both I myself and other researchers whose results I incorporated in my data have had different priorities. I myself, for instance, have been mainly interested in digging out the paternal line as far as I could get, whereas my uncle Piet (my mother’s brother), to whom I owe almost all the data on the De Pree family, has been working on an ‘Ahnentafel’ (pedigree, Dutch kwartierstaat), that is a complete listing of all his ancestors up to a certain generation, i.e. both parents, all four grandparents, all eight great-grandparents, etc.
The genealogical software I use is called Brother’s Keeper. Once in a while I save my Brother’s Keeper data base as a Gedcom file and from Gedcom update my family tree on Geneanet, where it is available to everyone, see the link on top of this page.
De Pree
The oldest De Pree I know of was Dionisius, born in 1730 in Kortgene (Zealand). Many males belonging to the De Pree family have Hubrecht as one of their first names. It is my first name, too, though I am normally called Peter. The name Hubrecht is relatively rare in The Netherlands. The first known ancestor with this name was Hubregt van den Griek, born around 1755, a forefather of my great-grandmother Fransina Glerum, married to my great-grandfater Pieter de Pree.
Houtzager(s)
The first ancestor who, to our knowledge, adopted our family name was Johannes (Jan) Houtsager, born at Dordrecht in 1681. His mother Lijsbeth and his maternal grandmother were probably from Dordrecht, but his father Hendrik Janszoon came from Arnhem, was a widower, worked in a brewery and married Lijsbeth in 1680 at Dordrecht. This is all we know about Hendrik, except that de died before 1690, because in that year his wife was a widow and remarried. It is possible that Hendrik, after his job in the brewery, worked in the wood sawing business, which would explain why his sons (Jan and his younger brother Olivier) adopted the family name Houtsager(s). In the eyes of the church, Jan did not lead an exemplary life and he was reprimanded several times by the elders and deacons. In 1708 he moved to Tiel and married our foremother Mijntje Beumers. In 1711 he was stabbed after a row in a pub and died. Luckily he had already begotten a son, thus ensuring the continuance of his lineage and making it possible for you, dear visitor, to read these lines written by yours truly.
Until 1811, the family-name was spelled in many different ways: Houtsager(s), Houdtzager(s), Houtzager(s), Houtzaager(s), etc. In 1811, the first year of the new civil registration in The Netherlands (Burgerlijke Stand), part of the family was officially registered as Houtzager, the other part as Houtzagers.
Documents
I am aware that part of both families (De Pree as well as Houtzagers) have emigrated from The Netherlands generations ago, but the documents that are published on this site are all in Dutch.
Registry book (parenteel)
This is a descendant registry book (in Dutch: parenteel) of Johannes (Jan) Houtsager and Mijntje Beumers. The descendant registry book contains all descendants of Johannes and Mijntje known to me. It is a pdf file, and it is preceded by an introduction (toelichting). Please click here for the Introduction and here for the parenteel. I myself belong to the tenth generation and have the number 234. Last update: February 11, 2006. This might seem very long ago, but the only relevant new information is what I told above on this page about the parents of Jan Houtsager (1681-1711), viz. Hendrik and Lijsbeth, and you will find that info in the family tree on Geneanet.
Book about Jan Houtsager (pdf)
In April 2022 I completed a book (third edition July 2023) in which I brought together all that I know about Jan Houtsager (the forefather who was stabbed and died in 1711) and his close relatives. It is possible that there will be new revisions. If so, I’ll publish them on this same web spot.
Jan Houtsager’s violent death
These documents contain a brief summary of part of the book mentioned above and concentrate on the dramatic events of May 1711, when Jan was stabbed in a pub in Tiel by Gerrit Noot and died a few days later. Jan himself and a number of witnesses were interrogated and the reports of these interrogations have been preserved. There are also a couple of documents written by Gerrit Noot’s lawyer who, among other things, argued that his client was acting in self-defense. If Gerrit told the truth, Jan was a very aggressive guy who almost killed him some ten days before the stabbing. First a brief reconstruction. Then a full report of the interrogations and of the suspect’s defense (in Dutch from around 1700). On May 29, 2011, exactly 300 years after the stabbing, descendants of both Jan Houtsager and Gerrit Noot gathered in a pub at Tiel, had a drink together and made it up.
Lena de Swager (1709-1802)
In 1991 Willem Houtzager, a very far relative of mine, wrote a booklet on a female common ancestor of ours, Lena de Swager. Lena was married to Hendrik, the son of the man who was killed at Tiel in 1711. Willem describes Lena’s life and places it in the context of The Netherlands in the 18th century. Willem gave me permission to scan his work and put it online. To read it, click here.
Coat of arms (familiewapen)
The last file concerns heraldry. Do we have a coat of arms? Click here.
Contact
Mail to h.p.houtzagers”at”rug.nl. Replace “at” by the at sign.
Last updated: August 25, 2024