December 2004

Dear friends,

What is been going on these last couple of years?
Be sure I have been following all news from Orangeburg and early family names that were on the list.

Due to some major projects in Oostzaan (the village where I live) I have not been so active in answering common inquiries as I did before. That task has been taken care of by some very skilled researchers, who often have the better info anyway.

When I became the secretary of the Historical Society of Oostzaan in 2000 I never thought that that would occupy about all my spare time. Gradually one days work changed into five, imagine more or less the task of bringing structure in the Salley Archives in Orangeburg :))
Our society had no building in 2000, all items were stocked in attacks and cellars all over the village and 2x annually we held meetings for our members.

In 2001 we were able to get our hands on a small but adequate building in which we now have:
- a climate depot for preservation of items
- a picture archive
- a document archive
- a newspaper clippings archive
- a textile archive
- a audio/video/film archive
- workspace, computer equipment and other facilities
- meeting space, where our members can enjoy coffee, tea and each other, while talking about "the old days"

We have increased by 100% with memberships and started to publish three periodicals a year and one major book per year.
In 2003 Claes Compaen, who was a pirate and came from Oostzaan, in 2004 we published a slang dictionary with old fashioned language of this village.
<our periodical  <2003  <2004

We still do the two meetings a year, but are also involved in exhibitions and displays on 5 separate locations in the village.
            
Below exhibition for our school youth with old fashioned clothing and toys

Furthermore are we involved in archeology, which can tell us more about the origin of the village (approx 1200), another possibility to involve the youth.

Living history lessons in Oostzaan         Major exhibition of the findings        Oldest layer at approx 10 meters

More reasons for low profile is caused by involvement with developing a useful computer program for working with so many genealogical and historic material as is involved when doing "a village" rather than "a family".
It needs much more than traditional programs and trust me, that takes a while.
Slowly this program begins to be what we want and hopefully Orangeburg will profit too, eventually.
For obvious reasons the program is still "all Dutch" but given time there will be an English version too and hopefully I will then find time again to do more Orangeburg.

Working example http://home.wanadoo.nl/ald-burdaard/Kaartdorpgebruik.htm

Below is the experimental attempt on the Orangeburgh Common, cursor is on Hans Ulrich Giessendanner's land - Lot 148
The darker the land, the earlier the arrival of the occupant

Well hopefully you will understand why Holland has been a bit quiet lately :))
Please visit kerstgroet2004-2005.html to see that Orangeburg, SC is "still on my/our mind(s)"
Joop Giesendanner