Sample from Friesland, the Netherlands, ca. 1900 (TRC 2020.1633).Nelleke Ganzevoort wrote the following blog:
Last weekend, while Gillian and Willem travelled to Friesland in search of Akke Scheepsma from Schettens (TRC 2021.1805; see the blog), I took a trip on my computer to find another girl. It took me to a small village in Friesland, even smaller than Schettens.
TRC 2020.1633 is a small sampler worked on a white ground with cross stitch, double running stitch and eyelets. In Dutch, I would not call it a merklap but rather a naailap – a piece of cloth on which sewing techniques are practised. It has no date, but lots of initials and these initials make it possible to date it.
The main initials in the centre are CvdZ, LJH and SvdZ, whereby LJH is worked in red, and the other two in white, square eyelets. CvdZ may be read as GvdZ. Three sets usually mean the girl and her parents. VD usually means 'van de', 'van der' of 'van den', and the fact that two of the three have the combinations VDZ means that these two will be father and daughter. So, I went looking for a girl called S* van de/der/den Z, whose mother was called L* H*.
I found Sjoukje van der Zwaag, daughter of Gabe Louws van der Zwaag (1856-1925), a farmer, and his wife Lutske Jogchums Haakma (1860-1929). Sjoukje was born 10-04-1892 in Akkerwoude, a very small village that is now part of Damwoude.
The other initials (GG, JC, LG, SG, TG) could refer to her brothers and sisters, but I was at first puzzled by the fact that they seem to have another surname (beginning with G). The fact that Sjoukje was Frisian explains this. In Friesland people used patronyms for a very long time, instead of or in addition to their surnames. Sjoukje's father, for instance, was Gabe Louws (son of Louw) van der Zwaag and her mother Lutske Jogchums (daughter of Jogchum) Haaksma.
Church of Akkerwoude, Friesland, the NetherlandsSjoukje used this patronym for her brothers and sisters, and the names of her siblings are known: Jeltje Gabes (Gabe's daughter) was born in 1880, Louw in 1882, Jogchum in 1884, Tabe in 1887, Sybren in 1889, Gerrit in 1894, Jan (JC) in 1897 and Liesbert in 1899.
It seems Sjoukje confused C and G. The same applies to the name of her father (CvdZ). Otherwise the names correspond exactly to the initials on the sampler; that is why I am almost sure that Sjoukje is the maker.
Sjoukje was married on 2 May 1912 to Pier Rienks (b. 1885), a ‘commies belasting’ (a tax official). I found one daughter, Sijtske, born in 1920, but there may have been other children. Sjouke died in
This ‘naailap’ is the sort of thing that was made in schools at the time. After learning to knit, girls would typically make a marking sampler and then start sewing. Sjoukje would have been between 10 and 14 years old when she made this ‘naailap’, which dates it to ca 1900-1905.
Nelleke Ganzevoort, 8 June 2021
