The American Dorland offshoot
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While performing genealogical research one often gets the idea of gaining a whole family. Not just various ancestors, but also living relatives, can shed a whole new light on the –sometimes- very local family events. In daily life one can run into a ‘stranger’ with the same family name, of whom you can ask yourself if it is really next of kin or not. Although some family is concentrated in certain regions, others are spread all over the country and even continents. In that case, establishing connections can be tricky business. The Van Dorland family originates in the ‘Betuwe’ a large area located in the centre of Holland, between two major rivers, while the Dorland family goes back even further in time, originating from the region ‘Vechtstreek’, roughly situated in-between the cities Amsterdam and Utrecht. It is here that the roots of our family lie. In the late ‘50s reverent E. van Alphen starts reporting on the family history in the Dutch genealogical magazine ‘Gens Nostra’. Various articles of his report of a Jan Gerrits Dorlant and a Lambert Jans Dorlant, who supposing both emigrated to America in the 17th century.

Since this had attracted our attention and curiosity, we decided to use a modern medium to find out if there indeed still were distant relatives in America and Canada. Using the internet it is fairly simple to browse through the American white pages. Next step is to search for a family name and there we go: over 400 ‘Dorland’ came out of the printer. Looking back on it now, it turned out that almost ever single one of those Dorlands were descendants of the two original Dutch emigrants. To retrieve the story of our relatives in the states, it sufficed to sent out some twenty letter, stating our genealogical research, and the intention to link the American side of the family to us Dutchies, if possible. Half of the people we addressed responded with great enthusiasm; most of them sent us a short description of their families, dating back just a few generations. A family from the state of Nebraska telephoned us in the middle of the night (Dutch time) stating that they had a copy of an entire ‘Dorland genealogy’, and at the same time asking if we would be interested,, because they were willing to send us a copy. A few weeks later a considerable parcel fell on the doormat: a book of over 300 pages, with a short description how the present owner had obtained it, by way of an inheritance. That inheritance is not so strange, since the book was originally published in 1898! Apart from the genealogical data which encloses the period from the middle of the 17th century until 1898, it also includes a few chapters about the background of Dutch colonists, daily life and other historical tales.
Also some ancestors of important or interesting offshoots are described in more detail. At the beginning of the book there is a list of people who back in 1898 pre-ordered the book, some 150 individuals, who, according to the text, got their copy at the price of $4,00. Next it was relatively simple to connect other genealogical records, or at least pieces of them, to the data in the book. It seems that most of the American Dorlands are not aware of the existence of Cremer’s book.

Mr. Arthur Dorland from Woodbine, Iowa, U.S.A. sent us many letters, one of which was his autobiography. Read more about this extraordinary and yet so common man. Click here.