Thanks, Cor. I was mainly interested in others' experiences -- what they found and how they went about finding them. As an example, however, let's take Cornelis Maessen Van Buren (1610-1648), the progenitor of the Van Buren family, the ancestor of President Van Buren (and me). He's commonly traced to the village of Burmalsen, near Buren from which he took his name. Since one of his descendants became president of the United States, I'm guessing that he is my Dutch ancestor most likely to have his homesite marked in some way. Is it? I have no clue. (Google Earth allowed me to virtually walk through a very neat -- though not particularly old looking -- little village.) I know that English is commonly spoken in the Netherlands -- especially in big cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Out in the villages, however, that may be less true. Mark -------------------------------------------------- From: "cor snabel" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 03, 2011 4:02 PM To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [DUTCH-COLONIES] Ancestral sites in the Netherlands? > Hi Mark, > >> I'm wondering if anyone has visited the Netherlands and found any trace >> of >> his/her 17th Century Dutch ancestor? > > You have to be more specific, what do you want to find, which cities > do you want to visit, etc. > The language will be no problem, almost everyone in the Netherlands > speaks English. > > Regards > Cor Snabel > The Netherlands > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message