Belch, Holland

[Suffolkgal]

I'm trying to find the birth/baptism of someone born in Holland around 1835/6.  He allegedly came to England in early 1860s or late 1850s (he died in 1882 and a newspaper report said he came to England about 20 years previously).  He married in England in 1861 and he appears in the 1861 census where he put his place of birth as Belch in Holland.  However, when he married he marked, rather than signed, and his name in the 1861 census is recorded as Uanis, rather than Johannes so I am assuming that is how the enumerator heard it (subsequent records all have him as Johannes or Johannis).  I can find nowhere in Holland called Belch so I am assuming that this, too, is how it sounded to the enumerator.  Does anyone have any ideas about where "Belch" might be 

[L]

Hi,

There is a small village called Belt-Schutsloot, which was originally in two parts, one being Belt. It is near a town called Zwartsluis. Maybe a possibility....

Lesley

[KGarrad]

In Dutch, a "J" is pronounced like a "Y" - so Uanis is (kind of!) understandable!

His surname (Portfleet in English) is likely to be Poortvliet in Dutch?

I can see 4 births on WieWasWie.nl:

Johannes Poortvliet, 18th July 1834, 's-Gravenpolder municipality
Johannes van Poortvliet, 16th July 1838, Oud-Vossemeer
Johannes van Poortvliet, 26th August 1839, Oud-Vossemeer
Johannes van Poortvliet, 23rd September 1840, Oud-Vossemeer


AHA! Better fit is:
Johannis Cornelius Poortvliet, born 13th October 1836, Breskens
I searched from 1831 to 1841.

The 1836 birth shows:
Father - Simon Cornelis Poortvliet
Mother - Janna van Alten


Incidentally, I'm not too keen on how the registrar quoted his name at marriage?!

March qtr 1861
King's Lynn district     vol 4b, page 595

Wardell, Martha
Poortohit, Johaimes Cornelius
Poorschit, Johanne Cornelius

[Suffolkgal]

Many thanks KGarrad...  and a nice piece of detective work, that, as I didn't give his full name.  On his marriage entry to Martha in St Nicholas Chapel, King's Lynn he names his father as Simeon Cornelius so guess this is my man!!  Johannes obviously  hadn't been in England that long before he was married so there may well have been a slight communication problem    Have registered with Wie Was Wie and, with the help of Google Translate, I hope to add another generation to the family tree.  I had seen this information on other trees on ancestry but no one included their sources so am pleased to find this.  Many thanks, again.

[KGarrad]

If you are going to use WieWasWie, then note that there is an English version!

Click on "English", top right.

And it didn't take much work to find someone born in "Belch, Holland"!
Thanks for the confirmation of his father's name - it's nice to know I'm on the right trail

[Suffolkgal]

Do you know of any other Dutch sites that may be of use?  Excuse me picking your brains further 

[KGarrad]

Sorry - I always use WieWasWie, as it's run by the Central Bureau for Genealogy (Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie), and it's free!

There may be other sites, but probably only in Dutch.
That's OK for me, as I lived in NL for 16 years; but may be a problem for you?!

[lininberks]

Bresken is in the county of Zeeland.  On the Zeeland Archives they have a search facility -Simon Cornelis marriage is transcribed there -http://www.zeeuwsarchief.nl/zoeken/?q=simon+cornelis+poortvliet&tab=people

On the right hand side under Plaats, click on Breskens, then again on the right-hand under Rol click on Bruidegom. The marriage you want is in 1832.

This gives also the names of the parents of the bride and bridegroom, as well as their ages and where they were born (Zierikzee for Simon) and their occupations.

The marriage in 1850 is for the same man, after his first wife died.

Bron refers to whether it is a birth, marriage or death.
If you have a play around, you should get the hang of the different words - I don't speak Dutch but can make my way through most of the records using Google translate!

Linda