Dear xmpcray,
I have been translating the text for several hours now, and it is
extremely laborious work. However, I have now completed the
translation of most of the text, and I can tell you that you may own a
book that might be most interesting and exciting for historians:
The book contains genealogical data for a very old noble Dutch family
who have left marks in their country's histoy.
Very old documents, from what I saw dating back to at least the early
14th century, have been transferred into that book; it is possible
that many originals of those documents have been lost in the 260 years
since those copies were made. The information in your book may be
unique and thus priceless.
Any attempt find out about the various coats-of-arms will require much
additional research, and good images of the names over each crest. But
I can already say now that the large coat-of-arms in the center of the
left page belongs to the noble van Mijnden family, who obviously seems
to be in the center of that collection of documents.
I could imagine that the descendants of the family, should there be
any, might be very interested in that unique book; and also the Dutch
town of Mijnden, where the family came from, might want to acquire it.
This is the translation of the Dutch parts of the manuscript's pages;
the texts date from the 17th and 18th century, so translation was not
easy:
-- Page One --
This seal belongs to the hereafter following thirty-eight document
manuscripts, in accordance with the country's seal-right, all of which
be especially confirmed by me, the signer; this to certify under this
my signature and my seal, in Amsterdam, 14 October 1738.
S. Wiselius [illegible formula]
-- Page Three --
...found to correspond by me, Gerrit Houtman, notary at the court of
Utrecht, and was [illegible abbreviation] G. D. Houtman notary.
Further below stands, compared with the original document of the
excerpt, and corresponds with the same, on this 27 January 1660; and
was signed J. Van Verhoven notary 1660.
In addition, also this agreement with the same principal, and that the
country's seal-right is satisfied by a seal for 12 florins inserted
here before, such is testified by me, in Amsterdam on this 14 October
1738.
S. Wiselius [illegible formula]
[Here follows a brief official letter written in Latin; I will try to
find help for a translation]
-- Page Four --
Table 1
Collection 13.18.
Amelis van Mijnden
Knight from the
van Aemstel van Mijnden
Wouter van Mijnden
Knight in 1318. Sir van
Mijnden and Loosdrecht,
son of Amelis van Mijnden
Bailiff of
Loosdrecht and of
Gijsbert Ploos van Nicolaas Ploos
Amstel, born: van Amstel, born:
He was already dead in 1326.
His wife was in 1319.
Damsel Geertruyd van
Ruwiel, Dr. van
Gijsbert van Ruwiel,
and Betta, Peter Grauwert's
daughter.
I hope that this has answered your main questions. If there is
anything else, I will try to help you.
Regards,
Scriptor |
Clarification of Answer by
scriptor-ga
on
12 Apr 2005 09:42 PDT
Dear xmpcray,
Here is a progress record of my work.
I am currently doing more research, in order to respond to your
Request for Clarification. First, let me tell you what I found out
concerning the various arms.
In European heraldry, a "normal" crest in a shape derived from a
knight's shield signified a male member of a family, while the
family's arms in an oval shape was used by a female member of a
family. However, this applied mainly to those instances where the arms
of a nobleman and a noblewoman who had married were displayed
together.
The double-page with all the crests obviously refers to such a
connection of two noble families by marriage. The left page shows the
man's grand coat-of-arms in the center. It is either the crest of the
van Ploos van Amstel [also spelled Aemstel] family or of the van
Mijnden family. Those two noble families were, as my research in
numerous genealogy lists suggests, closely related and bore the same
arms.
I furthermore think that the eight small arms on both sides of the
grand coat-of-arms displays what other noble families are related to
the one represented by the big central crest. Very probably they were
considered highly distinguished families, because noble families were
very branched; there must have been good reasons why those eight
related families of all those certainly connected with the groom were
chosen for display.
I did my best to make out the names over the various arms; here are the results:
- Left column:
1. Ploos van Aemstel
2. Pots
3. Brienen [?]
4. van der Horst
- Right column:
1. Leeuwen
2. Sonnevelt
3. Sch...kels
4. Zuij...
I will now proceed by looking for information on possible appraisal
and potential buyers for the book, including towns, museums, archives
and families.
Regards,
Scriptor
|
Clarification of Answer by
scriptor-ga
on
12 Apr 2005 10:45 PDT
Apart from searching for appraisal options and potential buyers, I
doubt that I can do much more. The later entries of the family tree
are written in rather untidy, undisciplined script. It's much harder,
almost impossible to read for me than the older entries, so I can't do
much in that direction (though it could be useful since the text may
contain hints on who might be interested in the book).
So I will now concentrate on appraisal and sale of that book. In what
approximate region do you live? After all, you will certainly prefer
an expert not too far away from your place of residence.
I feel honored that you consider giving me a tip. Please note that a
tip must be added before the rating is given, because the rating
definitely closes the question and disables the tipping option.
You can tip and rate as soon as you feel that I have done good work.
Of course, you can still request clarification after that.
Regards,
Scriptor
|
