Dorenbos/Hoogeveen/Leur

     Dorenbos                           Hoogeveen                 Leur

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Search Tips

The Dorenbos and Hoogeveen Family Databases are simple text databases with no “intelligent search” capability.  To perform a search in it you need to provide the intelligence.  This page can help you get started.

 

 

Activate Page Search Box

 

To search this database you need to use your browser’s “Find on Page” text-search feature (this is not your Internet search engine, say, Google, Yahoo, ...).  The page search box is opened by clicking (or tapping) as follows:

 

            Internet Explorer: (Tools Icon) -> File -> ”Find on this page”-> search box at upper left

            Safari (Win): (“Menu for the current page” Icon) -> Find -> search box at upper right

            Safari (Mac): (Apple Icon) -> Edit -> Find -> Find -> search box at upper right

            Safari (iPad): Search -> main search box -> “On this Page” at bottom of drop-down suggestion list -> search box above virtual keyboard or at lower right

            Chrome: (“Customize and control” Icon) -> Find -> search box at upper right

            Firefox: Edit -> Find -> search box at lower left

 

All these browsers have convenient “next” and “previous” navigation symbols, and all except the iPad will skip to the next hit when you press the “Enter” key.

 

 

Search Strategies

 

The Dorenbos Family Database contains more than 6,000 primary (Dorenbos) names, and the Hoogeveen Family Database, more that twice that.  All entries have the same surname (family name) and few have unique given names.  Your best bet is to review everything that you know about the relative you are seeking, and search for any one of the following data items (without quotes):

 

            Given name, if uncommon

            Spouse’s surname

            Spouse’s given name, if uncommon

            Spouse’s given name and surname together (see caveats, below)

            Birth year – search for “(9999-“  (also try the birth year +/- 1)

            Death year – search for “-9999)”

            Marriage year – search for “(9999)”

 

In your initial try, pick an above item for which you have data and that you estimate will bring the fewest search results to analyze.  Often your target will come up quickly and you don’t have to look any further.

 

Once you get a result with a manageable number of hits, step through those hits looking for one that also matches the rest of your criteria, including other known relatives in the neighborhood of the hit.  If none of them looks right to you, repeat this process with alternative spellings or other criteria in the list above.  Take into account the fact that some of my data as well as yours may be flawed, so be ready for occasional conflicts. 

 

If you still haven’t found a satisfactory hit, use the same process to search for other known relatives with the same surname.  Once one of them is found, the original object of your search should be located nearby in the tree.

 

 

Caveats & Tricks while Searching

 

1.  Spelling is a perpetual problem with names.  Errors are endemic in the data sources used for this database, and further errors accrue during indexing (and, I must add, during construction of this database).  Be sure to try all known spelling variants of your search names, even if you are sure you have the “correct” one.  Use partial names where practical, such as “Marg” for Margarita, Margrita, Margriet, etc., “beth” for Elisabeth, Elizabeth, Lijsbeth, etc., and “ornel” for Cornelis, Cornellis, Kornelis, Cornelius, etc., to avoid some common spelling problems. 

 

2.  A search for multiple names, say “Maria Kuiper” may fail because of intervening names or characters in the database.  An alternate name, a middle name, or patronymic might have been inserted, like “Maria (Marijke) Kuiper” or “Maria Jacobs Kuiper”.  Also, a surname might appear in parentheses, which indicates a patronymic conversion.  This is done to alert the reader that sometimes this person’s name is documented in patronymic form, i.e., without the surname, in case the reader intends to do further research on him/her.   There’s no easy way to work around these problems except to search for “Kuiper” and then step through all the results looking for “Maria” and other relevant data as described above, if the combined name doesn’t work.

 

3.  Also think hard about your search terms to reduce spurious hits.  For instance “van Dijk” might be better than just “Dijk”, and “ Hoff“ (note the space) eliminates names like “Noordhoff” if you want just Hoff.  “Hoff “ would probably work well to avoid “Hoffman”, for instance, but it is possible to miss your target if the name happens to appear at the end of a line (no space).  Still, it never hurts to try all these different ways.  There is no one formula that works well for every situation.

 

4.  Not every detail is known for every entry in the database.  If you get no hits with one of your search criteria—say, birth year—it does not mean that the object of your search is not there; it’s just that his birth year might happen to be unknown (or wrong).  Keep trying, using whatever other search criteria you have.

 

5.  If, after trying all these options, you still haven’t found your relative, report your case to me along with all relevant information you have and I will help you find him/her.  If this person has the name Dorenbos, Hoogeveen, or Leur, and lived in the Netherlands, then he/she either is in this database or should be in it.

 

 

© 2016 Annelies J. Schlitt       The use of any material derived from this website for commercial purposes without permission is strictly forbidden.