Exploring My Belgian–Dutch Ancestry with an Online Family Tree

Hazel3100

Hi everyone,

I’m new here and wanted to share a little about my ongoing family research. I live in Bruges, Belgium, but my roots go back to Northern France and the Netherlands. Over the years, I’ve been trying to piece together the movements of my ancestors — many of whom moved frequently during and after the war.

I’ve been collecting family information for quite a while now, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep everything organised with just spreadsheets and handwritten notes. Recently, I started using an online family tree tool — Creately’s Family Tree Creator — to map out the relationships more clearly. It allows me to visualise generations side by side, and I can also attach short notes about marriages, migrations, and old records I’ve come across.

I’m currently focusing on the De Vries and Lambert branches, where records from the early 1800s are a bit fragmented. Some church documents are hard to read, and my old Dutch isn’t perfect — so any tips on how to handle those would be very welcome.

If anyone here has experience tracing Belgian or Dutch ancestry during the Napoleonic period, I’d love to exchange ideas or learn from your research methods.

Best regards,
Hazel (name removed)

sc woz

@Hazel3100

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