For Those Interested in the Dutch Aalders / Alders stay on this page. This site contains links to spreadsheets
For Those interested in the German Alers or Ahlers Families Click Here. This site contains links to spreadsheets
For Those Interested in the Dutch Aalders / Alders stay on this page. This site contains links to spreadsheets
For Those interested in the German Alers or Ahlers Families Click Here. This site contains links to spreadsheets
Welcome to Aaldersfamiliesvelsen.org
This website records the genealogical succession of generations of those families originating from the Velsen/Haarlem area, who call themselves Aalders AND who also call themselves Alders. Yet they are one. Both families look to Henrich Ahlers born in 1689 in Vechta in the then Duchy of Oldenburg as their forefather. This website is the collective work of family menbers without whose help this site would not have come in erxistence . My late uncle Jacques Aalders in Leiden ,who in 1943 started this effort when his knitwear factory could not get wool , My cousin Gerard Aalders from Sydney NSW , Cees Alders and Gijs van der Poel in the Netherlands who researched the Dutch Alders ,MonikaThoelking of Osnabrueck and Dr Jozef Mahlmann of Cappeln representing the German Ahlers ,Dr Allan Bernard of Cincinnati ,and the late Dr Lew Aalders in Nova Scotia ,to all a big thank you . At last your contributions will see the light of day . Thank you so very much .
Henry Aalders , Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia
This website was compiled by descendants of Hendrik Hendriksz Aalders born in 1748 ,brother of Arij Hendriksz Alders a.k.a Aalderse . The emphasis is therefore more on Hendrik's descendants . This content in this wsebsite dealing with the forefathers of and relatives of both the Aalders and Alders descendants is one commom one . If you are and Alders and descended from Arij Hendriksz Alders/Aalders..................................................... Cees Alders and Gijs van der Poel ( married to an Arij Hendrik's descendant ) created a website concentrating on and provided photographs of the "Alders" descendants of Arij Hendrik Alders. To Access the "google" sheet ( Excell sheet like ), attached to this website ,setting out Arij Hendrik's descendants, put your curser on ..............Arij Hendriksz Aalders and descendants 8 January 2023 editon
ALSO
There is also an excellent version of the Alders familie of Velsen ,which concentrates on the Alders side of the family( descendants of Arij Hendriksz Aalders a.k.a Arij Hendrik Alders, prepared by Cees Alders and Gijs van der Poel.....Put your curser on .http://www.stamboomalders.nl. and learn.
The origin of the Alers, .Ahler, Aalders and Alders families
The origin of the Alers, .Ahler, Aalders an s Alders families can be traced back to Alerdt to Vernhuesen ,a farmer who created a family in Varnhorn ,a tiny farming settlement next to Siedenbogen in Landkreiss Vechta around A D 1000. It is derived from the Christian name Alerdt or Alardus.Dr Clemens Pagenstert in his family research mentions "Hof Alers" in that time slot .
On 14 October A D 872 Alerdt’s assumed grandpa or great-grandpa Ahlhard ,son of Everhund ,his wife and family ,his livestock and all of his possessions were “gifted “ to the new church regime of the Alexander Kirche established in AD 842 in Wildeshausen by Graf Walbert . Graf Walbert was the grandson of the great Saxon warrior Chief Widekund ( Wittekint )
Thus the very earliest known Ahlers together with 21 other local famiies had their freedom transferred to the Benedictine order to provide a reliable annual income for this newly set up church establishment in nearby Wildeshausen . This in return for a promise of eternal life for the Graf,grandson of Saxon Chief Widekund ,his wife ,mother and father.
In 1908 Dr Clemens Pagenstert ,an ordained Catholic priest ,published his doctoral thesis dealing with the farming families of Landkreiss Vechta It is due solely to this research ,that we know what we know today about who they were and what they did and the splendid isolation in which they tried to farm as tenant farmers and make a living .
We learned that there were 2 known farms near Visbek ,one in Varnhorn (Gemeinte Siedenboegen) ,the other in Hogenboegen ,once named Vernhuesen. There the family farmed 81 hectares and they had neighbours named Tole to Boghen, Meijer, Janluers ,Hinrich to Bogen and Dirich. They were the village and it is from them the Alers families sprung. Eventually they spread and became farmers in Visbek, Erlte, Rechterfeld, Siedenboegen and Garel ,Varnhorn, Hogenboegen, Spreda , Langfoerden , Oythe ,Lohne and Bokern near Vechta .
Descend ants of this family are now known as Alers, Ahlers, Aalders , Alders, Eilers , Oelers and in the USA ….Aylor. They live in Europe, USA , Camada, Australia and in New Zealand,
Family names had to come .Imagine having 7 Henrichs , 10 Anna’s 8 Maria’s and 12 Johanns ,all grandchildren of Henrich the Elder ,all at the same time …….Add to this the custom for a husband to be, to change his name to associate oneself with a well established farm inherited by his wife and of which husband would be the “Zeller” .
While Henrich Ahlers married as Hendrik Aalders and his son Hendrik Hendriksz Aalders retained that name , Arij Hendriksz ,Casper Otto and Henrich Alardus all adopted the more common version of Ahlers in Dutch ….Alders ,as their family name . Yet we were all one family .
In 1735 Henrich proposed marriage to a widow Pieternel Jansz de Bruijn and she accepted . Henrich was then 45 years old. He likely worked at the local bleacheries along the Jan Gijzenvaart after having walked there from his town "Vechta"'. It has been suggested that Henrich cared for his elderly parents in Vechta before he set off to Velsen .
(Pieter)Nel had inherited a half house along that canal so Henrich had an instant home. Nel died a year later and again Henrich proposed this time to 19 year old Antje Bijmans .She accepted .They married in November 1736 ,Antje was 20 years old and hailed from the Leenderstrijp Meijerij ( near Eindhoven ). Henrich was 46. The first Aalders couple produced 2 sons ,Arij Hendriksz and Hendrik Hendriksz and Marijtje their daughter.
The myth is that the official or priest who would marry them insisted that if Henrich wanted to marry a pretty young Dutch girl “,he better get a proper Dutch name”. Overnight Henrich became Hendrik Aalders.
The drop box refers to 1943 correspondence between my uncle Jacques Aalders ,the Vechra R C Church St Georg , and the Mayors office in Vechta . We are glad that the envelope to that mail was saved .It is reproduced herein . Note that even mail between a German Catholic Church from a predominantly Catholic population was censored . Note now 80 years hence the markings "Geoeffnet" (Opened) tell us this . The parish priest tells us that Hendrik Aalders parents were Henrich Ahlers and Anna Voet who married in Vechta in 1688 . and that ......,"der Niederlandischer Name Aalders kann identish sein mit den Deutschen Namen Ahlers ,der Niederdeutsch auch Alders gesprochen wird."
Note the Mayor telling my uncle ;" Vechta und Bakum gehoren zum so genannten Oldenburger Munsterland bis an Friesland angrenzte . Ursprunglich waren bekanntlich auch Holland und das Munsterland ein und dasselbe Siedlungsgebiet ,woher es auch kommt dass Sie die Name Vegt noch so schreiben ,wie er ursprunglich Hollandisch und Munsterlandisch volkommen gleich geschrieben wurde .Auch heute heisst Vechta in Plattdeutschen noch Vegt , ganz wie Sie sprechen . U
Now we know . Originally we were one settlemernt area ,and their priests were mainly educated in Utrecht and there was a great similarity in the speech of Muensterland with that of the Dutch .In "Niederdeutsch" Ahlers is pronounced Alders , Wow,now we know . Bishops ,often relatives of nobles, were fighting over territory . They had armies and acted as civil overlords granting city rights and ran civil administration .
Ary Hendriksz Aalders was born in 1742 ,and Hendrik Hendriksz Aalders in 1748 .Those who came after Arij called themselves Alders . The descended from Hendrik were the Aalders.
Those who today carry the name Aalders might want to click on :Holland 2023 edition descendants of Hendrik Aalders
The function of the the Dutch and German dropboxes
When compiling a family tree ,which basically is a list of statistics of those who came before ,begat and died . One comes accross a good deal of information which is fascinating ,even interesting , but which is superfluous to a list of statistics.When Daphne du Maurier (Lady Browning) ,English novellist , researched her French heritage ,she too built up a massive and bulging dropbox .
Daphne realised almost immediately that browsing over a list of her forebears was unbelievably boring so something needed to be done .Reading all about them in the drop box ,breathed life into her work ,which made reading it a must. So her novel "the Glassblowers" came to life and what a good story it proved to be. In our days a hugely privileged Prince Harry complains about he having been a "Spare " in his book . That is nothing new ,for we have in our story "our own spare", Johan Henrich Ahlers who was "surplus to requirements". This Johan did not winch about it but dealt with it like a man and established the Ahlers of St Henry.in Ohio.They did well there..
Did you know that we had the only church bell maker of Oldenburg in the family ?. Try to pour a 1.05 metre wide brass bell on your back yard in a tiny village in the 18th century and keep pouring boiling brass into a mould with a garden bucket. .Did you know that we had an Aalders in the trenches around Moscow in the service of Napoleon desperately trying not to lose his arms and legs to the bitter Russian frosts " ...and that Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands preferred to offer coffee and "Tompoesen " (chocolat topped tarts filled with cream inside ) to visiting members of the then royal houses of Europe , baked by Hendrik Aalders ? ( Try to eat one without the cream going just everywhere , but brother is it just unbelievably fantastic to eat ? )
Did you know that Opa Wempe worked for 12 years repairing local church clocks and bells and then had to fight to get paid ? Did you know that once upon a time , one could not simply buy a train ticket from Amsterdam to Zutphen ? There was no track and did you know that Jan Aalders was put in charge to lay the tracks and make travelling to the east of the Netherlands a possibility?.
Did you know that Jacques Aalders who operated a knitting factory in Leiden and had no wool to knit in 1943 had a thought . "What else can I do that is useful,while I wait for something to knit ? " Jacques decided to start compiling this family tree in 1943 .and left us the helpful advice from the mayor of Vechta ending his letter dutyfully with "Heil Hitler"and we have the evidencce here in the drop.box
. Did you know that Prof Maurice Aalders was presented with an inventors prize for inventing a contraption which when used by police found hidden blood spots and told them precisely how old these were ?
Spare a thought for Willemijntje Aalders ,who with a belly ready to explode and young Leendert Kaasenbrood fighting to be born inside her, was pleading to our bureaucracy to let her mary the father of her baby and give her a licence . Her parents had been rather lax in attending church and it refused help . "The problem is ,so said the official ,that we do not know officially that you really exist." To everyone present at the Velsen Town Hall, it was obvious that she very much existed and soon would experience the pains of childbirth .
Did you know that 20 year old Henry Aalders ,a dutch migrant to New Zealand ,an epilepttic .in 1960 bought a push bike and was the first person ever to cycle around both islands of New Zealand, 6500 km in 64 days ,which led to him being steered into university and graduating B Com ,having received just one year of Dutch secondary education ?
How many families do you know who have written documentation that their forebears were officially transfered into "lijfeigenschap" (slavery), to a church institution in return for a promise of eternal life for the big boys of the state ?
Then there is the story of brothers Gerard and Anton Aalders who had gone into hiding during WWII and refused to work in German factories supporting the war machine . They had bought against the express orders of the German occupier a radio capable of receiving the BBC . They were betrayed. A Dutch police inspector called at 17 Copernicus Street Hilversum to tell Gerard's wife "Jo" that she had an illegal radio in her house. Jo pretended not to know about it . The Inspector pushed her aside ,got into her house and walked straight to where it was hidden . "Get rid of right now ! You are lucky that we ,in the Dutch police , intercepted this information " was his advice. This will forever serve to praise those in the Dutch police who ,unlike their southern colleagues ,were patriots and protected their own people. This and much more is in the drop boxes , so read all about it . This family has a story to tell
Read About Hendrik Aaldertz (Aalders) Hollandgaenger see Dutch dropbox
About Barend Wempe ...Clockmaker .See "From the Minutes of the Catholic parish St Bavo in Schoten Meeting of 28 Oct 1872"..
The Leidse breifabriek v/h Geb Poot Lammermarkt 46 Leiden (Extracts from a speech by Emelie Aalders reported in "Spielz" September 1995.issue.
ln 1895 .Gerardus Georgius Aalders is reported to have joined Geb Poot trading as Leidse Breifabriek as Director., Towards the end of the middle ages Leiden once was the biggest city in the Netherlands due to a flourishing textile manufrcturing capacity . The industry declined due to cheaper wages costs in other competing countries. After WWll textile manufacturing in the Netherlands was doomed.
One by one knitting fuctories closed. In 1908 ,Emelie Philomene Aalders was born to future Director Gerardus Aalders . ln 1925 after completing the MULO secondary school she joined the Leidse Breifabriek as bookkeeper at urgings of her father. and remained in that positioon unrtil the firm wound up .
Girls in those days obeyed their fathers . ln 1931,Gerardus died. Her speech rnentions no other influential Directors,so it may be assumed that the Leidse Breifabriek was an Aalders family run undertaking. Brothers Jacques and Henk Aalders assumed Directorships and ran the show. Emelie was General Manager who worked at the firm for over 40 years . The firm in the 20's and 30's employed ca 40 knitters who worked from 7 am to 6 pm and sat on wooden tripods all day knitting on hand machines , a very different preposition to the electric circular knitting machines of 50 years later .
To kill time under the direction of boss ,Jacques Aalders ,the mainly protestant staff sang hymns used in the Sunday services, ably led by Catholic stalwart Jacques , until later public broadcasting replaced this. They worked under gas lights because there was no electricity. Warmth was provided by stoves burning coal. Eventually the factory was electrified .Hand machines were replaced by big knitting machines but already it was too late.
During WW ll the Germans confiscated all the wool the factory had and replaced it with artificial fibres . lf cold feet were to be suffered it would be by the Dutch. The German soldier was expected to have warrn feet but even woollen sox were no match for the vicious cold experienced at the Russian front.
When Gerardus joined 'Gebroeders Poot" the Leidse Breifabriek had already operated for 200 years. It seems that the family bought into the business when things went into decline . ln 1942 under the lead of Jacques, the factory moved from one building on the Lammermarkt to another. By 1968 the writing was on the wall. , The firm closed ,paid its staff and creditors and waited to learn what it could or could not do with its old building. Eventually it was pulled down to make room for new buildings . One thing I discovered from reading this account was ,that priests apparently have special needs regarding their legs and feet . It had never occurred to me that the simple act of laying a hand upon the head of a 24 year old priest being ordained had such a profound effect on the man's legs and feet .
I was amazed to learn that my relatives fabricated stockings especially for priests. How they did that and what was so special , my cousins never revealed . Perhaps there was a hidden pocket for itching powder,which on the sight of an attractive woman ,got activated . What handsome woman will seriously entertain a suitor who keeps scratching as he kisses ..-.??? Whatever was its reason ,it went to the grave with my uncles' deaths . My mother ,their contermporary , sent dutyfully each Christmas time a pair of sox to her parish priest in her New Zealand church . She never mentioned that a single pair was ever returned .
Those who are primarily interested in the Alders families should press their curser on ..............
Arij Hendriksz Aalders and descendants 8 January 2023 editon
And / or;
The Alders families from Velsen N H, descendants of Casper Otto Alers of Bakum
Just as Henrich undertook the long walk to Velsen so did at the same time a certain Casper Otto Alers. He hailed from Bakum Oldenburg, just a stone throw from Vechta . Casper Otto belonged to the clan who lived at the tiny village of Schledehausen (or Schledehuesen in the vernacular) . This village is just outside Vechta but was administered by the Bakum parish clergy .
Around A D 1730 those people who could not read or write and thery relied on the parish priest .There was not then any particular discipline about spelling . One wrote a word as it sounded .
"Plattdeutsch" was spoken all over the rural area ,and that of “Hoch Deutsch” ( the Queens English equivalent) used by those who priests who believed that they were better educated and were keen to show it in having studied at nearby Osnabrück University or other University or advanced seminary .("Platt" oder auch "gutes plattes Deutsch" war der Gegenbegriff zu der in weiten Kreisen der Bevölkerung nicht verständlichen Lateinischen Gelehrtensprache.).
This researcher believes Casper and Henry to have been related ,probably cousins, perhaps somewhat distant . It is telling that Casper also married a wife in 1735 ,be it that Casper took the precaution to "pick up" a beloved local lass as he walked his way to Holland ,when he picked up his Margareth at the township of Freere in Ampt Lingen just on the German side of the Dutch border .
The Bakum Alers clan settled in Bakum after an initial spell of farm work at nearby Langfoerden , where there appears to have been intermingling with those subsequently identified as Henrich’s family .
The descendants of Casper Otto Alers also call themselves Alders .
See; The Alders families from Velsen N H, descendants of Casper Otto Alers Bakum
What do we know about the Noordwijker Alders ?
In or about 1805 Henrich Arnoldus Ahlers son of Johan Bernard Alhers and Anna Catherina Penkhues from Hogenboegen Oldenburg and born in 1779 , married Aagie Arisdr van der Klerk from Noordwijk SH and the couple created the Noordwijk Alders family. The forefathers of this clan attended without a doubt the very same church as did the Velsen forefathers ie the St Vitus church in Visbek. They are therefore related ,be it distantly .
Johan Bernard Ahlers and Anna Catharina Penkhues married on 7 Feb1777 in the R C St Vitus church in Visbeck in Amt Vechta Southern Oldenburg .They raised a large family. Ben lived at the family compound at the Hogenboegen farm just a few kilometres from the parish church .His family had lived there for over 900 years. The family had a long farming history running “Hof Ahlers” at the Rechterfelder Strasse .Ben’s parents Gerhart Ahlers and Catharina Freese were also married at the same St Vitus church in 1743. Ben’s Opa , Henrich Ahlers had married Anna Luers also known as Anna Janluers in 1711 also at St Vitus Visbeck . That young couple went to live with Anna’s parents at their Rechterfeld farm.
Note that this "Alardus x Aagje" couple had a very close relationsdhip with the Janluers family . 5 of their children had a Godparent named Luers or Janluers ,which is the same family. That only happens when one gets on within the family We know for sure that Henrich’s forefather Alerdt to Vernhuesen and his wife Gretha were regular tax payers to the abbott of Corvey through his Wildeshausen local representative from 1549 to 1564. That 1549 Alerdt could already tell his children how his forefather very likely to be another Alerdt , who likely fought (later emperor) Karl de Grosse ( Charlemagne) many times to ultimately be defeated leading to the Saxon chief’s ultimate forced conversion into Catholicism and baptism and the consequential trade of Evorhund’s and family’s freedom and liberty , This was in return for a promise of eternal life for their overlords, Walbert ,Altburg , Wichbert and his spouse, Walberts parents made on 17 October in A D 872 ,so says the Deed of Gift .
The death of toddler Pietje Alders 16 Sep 1899-5 May 1904 at Noordwijk Struck by the blade of a Windmill. Young Pietje did not make his 5th birthday . Reading this ,119 years after the event ,one’s heart fills with grief and compassion .Pietje ,son of Piet (Petrus) Alders ,grocer and Dieuwke Bijvoets, while playing on the yard of the windmill located at the Molen Straat, was hit by one of the spinning blade arms of the windmill and died from his head injuries . How very sad !
Did you know that the father of Dieuwke Bijvoets( born 1862 in Workum Friesland) ,Arjen Pieter Bijvoets was the last known coppersmith in Friesland , one of the last of a dying trade .?
Interested in Noordwijk Alders ? See : The Alders of Noordwijk 2020 edition
The Aalders of Nova Scotia Canada....
Staff sergeant Pieter Aalders lay in the trenches as his fellow soldiers tried hard not to freeze to death . When it is cold and it can be bitterly cold around Moscow , and the leader ,mighty Napleon Bonaparte was not doing so well , Pieter asked himself " Why am I here ?" He and a number of German and Dutch soldiers asked themselves the same question and they acted . They signed up with the British who needed soldiers to take them to Canada where Maine was not overly thrilled in becoming New Ireland and were considering joining the USA . The British effort failed and Pieter was offered a piece of land in Nova scotia and established "Aaldersville".
see The Aalders of Nova Scotia
What do we know about our forefathers prior to the keeping of baptism, marriage and death records within the churches ????
A a young Bokern farmers son ,Clemens Pagenstert curious about his family's roots ,after being ordained a priest , undertook his doctoral studies s in publishing his thesis (a 735 pages book) “Die Bauernhöfe im Amte Vechta", published in Vechta in 1908.
Dr Pagenstert wrote this book prior to the two World wars in which Germany was involved . He had access to old Abbey / monastery taxation records , many since destroyed during WW II . Many Church records have been lost due to religious strife and also due to the vandalism suffered during the 30 year old war . Church records rarely go back to days earlier than the 1560-1600 era. Of those that do, a good number are illegible due to handwriting which ranged from superbly clear to virtually illegible to simple having faded away . For most this research is the only record that will assist tracing forefathers 500 to 600 years prior to the earliest church records . The Ahlers and other local families ,profited greatly, knowledge wise, from Dr Pagenstert's work .Henry Aalders was fortunate to connect with the right knowledgeable people in compiling this work .
Dr Pagenstert found tax assessments recording the tithes , payable by tenant farmers. known by their given name and their known farm or farmlet . He married that information with known occupants in later years, after family names were introduced .
Alerdt’s farm became “ Hof Ahlers” . ,Land tenancies were transferred to the eldest son only and subdivision of title was not permitted ,fearing that indiscriminate subdivision would destroy the farming industry .Thus the tax records tend to only mention the successors to previous tenancy holders and ignore their siblings, second or subsequent born sons and all daughters.
They became “spares” ,a class of landless peasants . Dr Pagenstert's records do not mention each and every tenancy holder. To those keen to trace beyond what church records would disclose, this book is a Godsend. The history of the Ahlers would, like many others,have ended around 1650, had Dr Pagenstert not then researched our common history.To me it is rather immaterial that Dr Pagensterts records permit me to discover only who some of my ancestors were and dpes not mention others..
In spite of its ,for me , shortcomings ,.Dr Pagenstert established that my forefather was Alerdt who lived AD 1000 who is recorded as a tenant farmer of Wildeshausen abbey .Whether I am descended from his first ,second or third son is relatively immaterial . I learned from very knowledgeable members of the Oldenburger Gesellschaft fuer Familienkunde E,V that there had lived a certain Evorhund who together with his sons Clawes, Dyrick , Eybe and Alhart ,by Deed were officially “traded” with the Abbott of the local monastery together with all that they possessed in return for “eternal life” for Graf Walbert , grandson of Saxon Chief Widekund. his wife, Mum ,Dad and grandparents together with a number of other local prominent land owners. History shows how the establishing abbeys and monastries obtained their wealth and how local families were involved in this happening.
Many farming families who had preparted their eldest son to continue the family farm ,saw ownership of their farm go to the church upon their Dad, upon his deathbed ,having transferrd the farm or its tenancy rights in return for eternal life promised to him by the attending priest .It did not take long before some clergy became expert confidence tricksters .
Local rulers ,be they kings,princes,earls or dukes ,be it over German Saxen territory or that of Brittain oldenvburg .
Dr Pagenstert also revealed that our identified farmers around AD 1000 held on to 320 hectares of land ,.which they farmed as a community property holding . Alerdt ,also known as Meijer, farmed together with Janluers (,31 hectares) , Tole to Boghen (42 hectares), Dirich Alardus Borgers ,(34 ha) ,and Hinrich to Bogen ( 40 hectares) .The balance constituted “Hof Ahlers” , we might say in our 2022 vernacular “in the middle of splendid isolation “.
It explains why in their eartliest church records which could be consulted Ahlers married Meijers and Borgers and to Bogen and Janluers .It is not surprisuing thart they married folk from "next door".
For more details about our German members of the family see: "German Clans" Drop Down Box right top.
Pre Velsen Days
Prior to Henrich Ahlers and Casper Otto Alers moving to Velsen N H in the early part of the 18th century ,their families had lived for at least 850 years in the area south of today’s Oldenburg city along the river Hunte in a settlement described as Farnthorpe . This today is believed to be the village of Varnhorn ,where the Ahlers operated a farm . For those interested in the German ancestry of the Aalders and Alders see :
see The earliest Ahlers of Visbek (2020 edition) A D 770-1687
There is an excellent version of the Alders familie of Velsen . www.stamboomalders.nl ,which concentrates on the Alders side of the family prepared by Cees Alders and Gijs van der Poel
The Aalders of Nova Scotia
As most of the Ahlers/Alers /Aalders/Alders clan awaited anxiously for the outcome of a war waged by their new empire building overlord, Napoleon Bonaparte , Staff sergeant Pieter Aalders from Culenborg was considering a most attractive proposition made by an English General . The general tried to put together an army of Dutchmen and Germans from cold and restless men freezing to death in the trenches north of Moskow .Things had not been going well for Napoleon and a Russian winter was murder to the men recruited in the low countries to fight a distant war .
The deal was this: "Leave this hellhole and come with me to the new world ,where the Massachusetts colony of Maine is considering joining the USA and if that succeeds it would severely hinder transit traffic from Quebec to New Brunswick and the Maritimes" …. "Come and help us British to stop it. " We need your help ….and the pay will be attractive ".
Pieter signed up ,boarded the ship and sailed for the new world. Stopping the locals he did not. Maine rejected the notion of becoming “New Ireland” and joined with the New England colonies the Republic of the United States .
“We could an send you back to Rotterdam ,but since you are already here ,we could give you a plot of land and you make your own future” said the British,who now had a whole contingent of war trained young men to demobilize . Pieter accepted a grant of land in the middle of nowhere in Nova Scotia ,found a pioneering wife and established the village of Aaldersville , today more commonly written as Aldersville ,and became the patriarch of the Nova Scotia Aalders We know that Peters grandfather Johan Ahlers migrated to Culemborg around 1730 ,at about the same time as Casper and Henrich walked to Velsen .
Opa Jan told local authority that he was born in the Kingdom of Hannover ,which adjoins Oldenburg. Since the Ahlers farmed land right up to the boundary between Oldenburg and Hannover, Pieters grandpa could have been a relative who had “moved to the other side of the road" . Then again perhaps he came from a place many kilometers away. Someone else may one day discover the truth. Pieter was not a Roman Catholic which suggests that there was no family tie with the clan who attended Mass in the St Vitus Church in Visbek ..
see The Aalders of Aaldersville NS
see Dutch Relatives of Pieter Aalders born 1785
The Deed of Gift dated 17 October A D 872, which traded our forebears for a promise of eternal life for local Saxon rulers. What a find !!!!!
A copy of this Deed was supplied by Dr Jozef Mahlmann to Henry Aalders in May 2009 in Vechta .It tells us more than a hundred searches in church registers would have disclosed had those registers actually existed ,(which I believe they did not ). It traded an ecclesiastical promise of eternal life for Graf Walbert ,and Altburg his wife and Walbert’s parents Wichbert and Odrad. for the land of our forefathers ,their persons ,livestock and temporal possessions.
Like any contract it is dated ,it names the contracting parties, it is agreed on the subject matter and sets out the consideration .
The Deed is dated 17 October A D 872 As the Deed says ,Graf Walbert great-grandson of Saxon Chief Widekund, built the St Alexander church in Wildeshausen in 842. This was to become an adjunct of Benedictines run Corvey Abbey of whom its first abbott, Adalard of Corbie,was a cousin of Charlemagne. The Church clearly is the recipient of the earthly goods and does the promising of heavenly rewards in return .
This new Church institution needed to be endowed . This was achieved by forcing its peasant farmers to become” the property of the abbey” to whom those who leased the land they had previously owned had to pay 10 % of what they had managed to produce as a tax to their new Monastic owners. So came into existence the Abbey Tax records from which we learned so much through Dr Clemens Pagenstert’s doctoral thesis .
The form is that of a cross between a Deed of Gift and a bartering arrangement .” Propterea donamus pro remedio animarum nostrarum seu genitoris genitrisque mee videlicet Wiberti et Odrad necnon et propinquorum nostrorum partem hereditatis nostre que est in pago leri in vila que dicitur Wihaldushusen super fluvio Hunte ad ecclesiam Saneti Alexandre ipse corpore requiescit . Donamus igitur donatumque in perpetuum esse volumus……….”, we give you in perpetuity our land ,(farmers and all they possess) in return for the eternal salvation of the souls of ourselves and those of our Mum and Dad. What we also learn from this document is the realization how relatively few farmers were included in the area transacted ,which supports the Mahlmann notion that the area ,broadly covering “Landkreiss Vechta” then was extremely sparsely populated .
As far as concerns, Holtrop and Langfoerden, Brunger, Richund ,Bacward Adalward Werinbem ,Gerhart, Ricbrecht ,Macuben & Inkedes ….,just 9 farm owners…lived there. Holthusen (just below the Dollart inlet ) Gerlec and Ebbo. Farnthorpe ( possibly Varnhorn ) parish of Visbek, Evorhund (and his 4 sons Dyrick, Clawes, Eybe, and Alhard ), Tatto Waddo in Ivoriti ( Erlte ??), Tiodo, Uffo. Sage (Grossenkneten), Werinmer Handsted ( Wildeshausen), Viggot Dungestorpe Duengstrupp( Wildeshausen), Wendelbirn Avo Lutten, SigiwalHollen Grosenkneten, Meyo in Bunnen Loeningen, Gerwerk Bergfeine Damme, Udic , Amelong. They all lived where indicated ,farmed and became a financial resource on which the abbey relied for its income. This makes in all an initial 23 nominated farms in such a widespread area .It makes a case for the Mahlmann view that likely Evorhund was “Stammvater” of all developing farming families subsequently studied by Dr Pagenstert .
By A D 1000 Dr Pagenstert had determined that our forefather of that day ,one of the many Alerts , had neighbours ,whose forebears undoubtedly existed around A D 872 and how much acreage was in fact farmed by each. This raises the prospect that the 23 farmers mentioned in the document represented local leaders who exercised some authority over those who farmed in the area around them. The duchy of Oldenburg on or about A D 872 had been spared the dissemination caused by the great plague of A D 541,which never affected Western Europe. The local population of that day ,if measured then, was before the enormous loss of life caused by the outbreaks of the plague and black deaths of 1347 and 1894. and the great famine of 1315. Between 1348 and 1375 ,the worlds population dropped by 42 %.
Just reflect for a moment how your life would change were these things to happen to you and your family today. Your 4 children would not go to school today ,for the schoolbus did not pick them up. When you eventually got them to school only two of them had a teacher . The teacher of your eldest had to share the time available in helping to run the school for the headmaster was struck down with disease from which he was unlikely to recover.
The planned weekend trip to see the inlaws on their special wedding anniversary had to be cancelled for there were not enough train drivers to run the trains. The same applied to buses and taxis .,They might or might not show up . The local service station is closed.The operator just could not manage on the paper thin margin in petrol from a now heavily reduced volume of useage. The vicar of the Anglican church has announced that he is migrating to Tanzania ,for there simply were not sufficieny offerings from Sunday services to sustain him and his family . Hungry you might be but do not get sick ! There are no doctors ,nurses nor ambulance drivers. Bodies are piling up in the coridors leading to the mortuary ,where there is not a living soul in attendance. In those days as it would be today, chaos reigned everywhere and crime was rampant. Our forefathers lived through and survived horendous times and we are descended from those who managed to survive. Assessments of the world population around A D 900 at 228 million compared to a world population of today ,2022 of 8 .7 billion ,suggests that the population of Oldenburg Duchy around AD 872 was less than 10,000 people. Farms were spread out far apart. There were plenty of wars and armed conflicts. Not all of the soldiers were paid on time ,if at all . They all needed to eat and farmers had to defend that which their hard work had produced. Young soldiering men behave best if they enjoy the comfort of their own women, Farming fathers sought to protect their daughters. Who would be a forefather of mine?????
We used Excel worksheets to record the history of the Aalders and Alders families of Velsen and Noordwijk . Having sprung from the Alers of Landkreiss Vechta , there is inevitably a strong linkage between the Dutch and the German descendants records .
If we want to know more about our forefathers who lived before 3 of them , migrated to Holland ca 1730-1735 to marry and live there, we need to refer to the Ahlers /Alers family records .
See Below
Holland 2023 edition descendants of Hendrik Aalders
Arij Hendriksz Alders and descendants Velsen NH 8 Jan 2023
Velsen 13 Casper Otto and descendants 2020 edition
Aalders of Aaldersville NS 1good
Dutch Relatives of Pieter Aalders born 1785
invitation to make this a better and morfe useful site
If you enjoyed reading this material and you are able to correct mistakes ,incorect assumptions made or simply have stuff which we can fruitfully add to make this into a better site, please do feel free to supply those comments, additions, deletions and adjustments . They all are welcome
Henry Aalders haalders@bigpond.net.au or Nel and Gijs van der Poel g.vanderpoel@quicknet.nl
For Those Interested in the Dutch Aalders / Alders stay on this page. This site contains links to spreadsheets
For Those interested in the German Alers or Ahlers Families Click Here. This site contains links to spreadsheets