OliveTreeGenealogy.com logo for Olive Tree Genealogy and its free free genealogical resources Your link to the past since February 1996! Search for your ancestors in free Ships' Passenger lists, Naturalization Records, Palatine Genealogy, Canadian Genealogy, American Genealogy, Native American Genealogy, Huguenots, Mennonites, Almshouse Records, Orphan Records, church records, military muster rolls, census records, land records and more. Olive Tree Genealogy Free Genealogy Database marks FREE genealogy records.

Follow Olive Tree Genealogy         

Olive Tree Genealogy was chosen by Family Tree Magazine as one of the 101 Best Genealogy Websites 2017!

Check out the Genealogy Books written by Olive Tree Genealogy!

Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis Schulze

Janie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to a dark secret. Can she solve the mysteries of the past and the present before disaster strikes? Available now on Amazon.com and and Amazon.ca
                 Organize Your Genealogy in Evernote in 10 Easy Steps is a must have!
 


Search immigration records.

Search now

Try an Ancestry.com Free Trial and Ancestry.ca Free Trial

Genealogy Mystery Book!


Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery
by Lorine McGinnis Schulze

Janie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to a dark secret. Can she solve the mysteries of the past and the present before disaster strikes? Available now on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca

AncestryDNA

Genealogy Newsletter

JOIN the FREE Olive Tree Genealogy Newsletter. Be the first to know of genealogy events and freebies. Find out when new genealogy databases are put online. Get tips for finding your elusive brick-wall ancestor.

Share With Others

Share with other genealogists! Tweet this page!

Search OliveTreeGenealogy

Search Fold3

Search Military Records - Fold3

New Netherland, New York Genealogy

New Netherland Settlers Books now available!:

Ships Passenger Lists to New York
500 voyages to and from New Netherland (New York)
Cemetery Records (Cemetery, Obits)
Census Records
Church Records (B, D, M)
City Directories
Land & Mortgage Records
Military Records
Wills & Probate Records
New Netherland History
Ancestor Signatory hand marks
Translation of words in Church records
Understanding Patronymics
Dutch Names & Nicknames
Glossary of Dutch Words
Ancient Dutch Occupations
New Netherland Settlers
17th Century Ancestor Registry
Dutch & English translations for Occupations
Life in 17th Century Amsterdam
Online Books
Research in the Netherlands
Miscellaneous Genealogy
[ Mailing Lists] [Societies & Journals] [Dictionary & Definitions] [Olive Tree Library] [Help] [Links]

Life in 16th and 17th Century Amsterdam Holland: Funeral Customs

Funerals in Amsterdam

© Cor Snabel

Around the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) the graveyard was separated in three parts. One of those parts was for the "miserables", those who died by the hand of the executioner, the suicides, non-baptized babies and heretics. The other two parts were for the poor. The highest attainable was to be buried inside the church, the floors of the Oude Kerk and the Nieuwe Kerk still have beautiful tombstones. The church authorities had a problem in those days, they had to perform divine services on a regular base, but also a growing number of rich families, who wanted their relative to be buried in the church. So they had to store the corpses till there was an opportunity for the funeral. If the city was struck by an epidemic, the problems were almost insuperable. During the divine services even perfume was not effective enough, so the situation was unbearable.

Authorities decided that the funereal would be performed in the evening, after all services and masses were over. The cortege would be accompanied by a number of servants with torches, which made this event even more dignified.

The graveyards were, as can be expected, the ideal playing ground for the youth, plying dice, throwing stones and shooting birds from the steeple. This improper use of the graveyard just increased, because space within the city walls was limited. The carpenters used it to saw the wood, the street vendor sold his merchandise here and sometimes pigs and chicken were found in the graveyard.

But two more reasons forced authorities to do something about the funerals within the city-walls. The first reason was the explosive increase of the population; in 1558 Amsterdam had 30.000 inhabitants, 50.000 in 1610, 100.000 in 1622, 145.000 in 1642, 170.000 in 1652 and in 1662 the population was 200.000, almost seven times more than 100 years before. The epidemics were reason number two.

The City Council did not want to extend the graveyards near the churches, so they had to build new graveyards outside the city-walls, like the St. Anthonis graveyard. Due to the plague epidemic of 1601 the first funeral on the graveyard of the Zuiderkerk had been carried out long before the church was ready. The church was consecrated on 22nd May 1611.

Some funerals made it to the history-books. Today nobody knows who Gerrit Dircksz. den Uyl was, but in his days he was a very popular innkeeper in Sloten near Amsterdam. His funeral on 21st May 1660 was attended by so many people, that the cortege was more than 200 meters in length. We still know how much food was dispatched: 20 oxhoofden wine (an oxhoofd is 234 liters), 70 barrels of beer, bitter and sweet, 550 pounds of beef, 28 calve breasts, 12 sheep legs, 18 large pieces of wild boar and 200 pounds of minced meat. After the funeral about 50 or 60 beggars were found on the road between Sloten and Amsterdam, dead drunk.

Dutch Bakers in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Banishment in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Begijnhof in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Book Printers in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Building (Construction) in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Charity in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Children in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Diseases in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Education in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Entertainment in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Extinct Trades in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Funerals in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Guilds in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Immigrants in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Marriage in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Miracles in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Prostitution in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Schutterij (Civil Guard in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Servant Girls in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Street Life in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Table Manners in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Transportation in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Role of Women in Amsterdam Holland
Dutch Introduction in Amsterdam Holland


 
 

Don't leave without searching for your ancestors on Olive Tree Genealogy! Free Ships' Passenger lists, orphan records, almshouse records, JJ Cooke Shipping Lists, Irish Famine immigrants, family surnames, church records, military muster rolls, census records, land records and more are free to help you find your brick-wall ancestor. Build your family tree quickly with Olive Tree Genealogy free records

URL: http://olivetreegenealogy.com/           All rights reserved          Copyright © 1996-present
These pages may be freely linked to but not duplicated in any fashion without my written consent.

Home Philosophy Helping FAQ Link to Olive Tree Library Friends Privacy Policy Store About Lorine Awards, Interviews About OliveTreeGenealogy


Contact Lorine at Contact Lorine of Olive Tree Genealogy