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RE: Old Dutch farm house: some details (long post)
The joining techniques used are incredible, labor-intensive, and most importantly, durable. What a beautiful farm and structure! I will share this post with my mother, since she researches our Dutch family ancestry .
The main beams in this farm house are original, so about 240 years old. This type of farm house is typical for the region I live in, Twente, and was probably introduced here by the Saxons that came this way from the 5th century onwards. Your family may have lived in different type of farms!
So I shared your post about the Dutch farmhouse with my mother, and this is her response!
I think Dutch architecture is intriguing and beautiful. The information he gave along with the pictures was interesting too. In 1811 Napoleon forced the registration of surnames; up until then, most Dutch used patronymics, which was based on the father's name. (The Scandinavians used this naming system as well.) For example, if a boy was born to a man named Jan, who named his son Pieter, the son would become Pieter Jans zoon. (zoon = son) A daughter might be named Geertje Jans dochter. (dochter = daughter) In the more northern and eastern parts of the Netherlands, oftentimes people chose surnames based on where they lived. For example, those from Friesland used the suffix "ma" or "stra". A common Dutch surname we see in Iowa is Dykstra (in the Netherlands it would have been spelled Dijkstra). That means there was a dike near the place where their ancestors came from.