In the Footsteps of the Ancestors ~ Touring Nieuwpoort, Netherlands

Nieuwpoort, The Netherlands, 1866

Part 2 of 3

Last week I wrote a blog post about my visit to Krimpen aan de Lek, Netherlands with my distant cousin, Hans Hoogerzeil, to see where our common ancestors lived.  In this post, I’ll be showing you the sights at the tiny village of Nieuwpoort, where my 5^th great grandmother, Anna Ooms who married Simon Machielszoon Hoogerzeijl was born in 1742.  Her parents were Adam Adriaans Ooms and Anna van der Ham.  This side of the family lived here until their grandson, my 3^rd great grandfather, Peter Hoogerzeil, was born in Dordrecht in 1803.   

Canals in Nieuwpoort

The village church

Nieuwpoort town hall

Simon Hoogerzeijl was the commander of whaling ships from 1771 to 1802.  His father-in-law, Adam Ooms was a Nieuwpoort whaling commander, too, from 1749 – 1775.  The house where Simon and Anna are believed to have lived is in the "inner harbor" of the village (on a small canal), near the village church where eight of their children were baptized.  This house is believed to be their house because whale bones were found in a backyard excavation. There is a beautiful ceramic tile of "Noah's Ark" on the front gable end of the house. 

The house where the Ooms Family is
supposed to have lived in Nieuwpoort

"Noah's Ark" is the name of the house!

According to Wikipedia, the small village of Nieuwport has only about 600 residents.  Hans described it as a “garrison town”, and the small walls are used to control flooding.  We parked outside of the town walls and walked through the wooden doors that can be closed like a canal lock.  There are drainage canals running through the town in front of the houses.  It is very picturesque, and easy to imagine what it was like when my ancestors lived here.   Nieuwpoort was about 20 kilometers from Krimpen aan de Lek. 

In 1780 Simon and Anna Hoogerzeijl removed to the city of Dordrecht, where they are both buried.  It was a very nice drive along top of the dikes from Dordrecht to Nieuwpoort with Hans and Erik.  We visited the windmills at the Kinderdijk and drove through some lovely farm land. It was a perfect tour for this New England girl, with lots of new things to see in the Netherlands!

Kinderdijk

Driving along the tops of the dikes

Water screws moving the water UP to river level

Click here to read Part 1 of this series, Krimpen aan de Lek:

https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/02/in-footsteps-of-ancestors-touring.html  

(The map in the image above is from Wikimedia Commons, J. Kuyper - Germeente Atlas van Nederland (Municipal Atlas of the Netherlands), 1866.)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “In the Footsteps of the Ancestors ~ Touring Nieuwpoort, Netherlands”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 5, 2018, (   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/02/in-footsteps-of-ancestors-touring_5.html: accessed [access date]).