Gendt's data on the settling of the Guelders Stapels.
(home = www.cstapel.nl)
Johan Hendrik (I) from Gendt is our earliest Stapel ancestor through connecting birth and marriage certificates. A Gendt's birth certificate on him does not exist and his 1790 marriage certificate does not mention parents, but the reverent started and crossed out again the word "born", continuing with "living under Gendt". So while Jan Hendrik's birthplace remained unrecorded in Gendt, it was clear that he did not come from the region.
Also unknown in Gendt are his whereabouts between 1782 and 1790, but in June 1783 a Jan Hendrik Stapel engaged with the VOC marine trading company in Amsterdam to stay away until March 1788. That must have been Johan Hendrik from Gendt, the more since he had no namesake in any of the contemporary Stapel families in the country. In VOC Paybook 6714 page 209 he undercrossed a 150 guilders debenture to "his mother M greesBeek", seemingly a rather incomprehensible name the writer tried to spell phonetically. In Gendt 1783 there was only one Stapel family, with the mother named Margaretha Böge, Beujens and Beugen in birth certificates. With a German g and in dialect this may have sounded like M'greet Beuk or Beek, with the t becoming a swish sound when lisped. All in all we can deduce that Margaretha Böger was his mother and therefore her husband David Stapel was his father. The debenture issued on her name is likely a sign that she was a widow already.
The "Genealogy of David Stapel, 1760 - 1922" by the Historische Kring Gente (Historic regional circle) contains a wealth of data on the Guelders' Stapel family, even without issue date, author(s) or references. Page 1 says about David Stapel: "David is married before Sunday, February 3, 1760 in Church with Anna-Margaretha Beuge". The date and church are taken from the RC birth certificate of their first child in Gendt. Johan Hendrik Stapel is mentioned as the last of their other 6 children, with the following information under II-d, page 71: "farmer, died in Gendt Sunday September 7, 1806". Evidently also the Historische Kring Gente could find neither marriage data on David and his wife, nor their or Johan Hendrik's birth certificate. By default they ranked Johan Hendrik as the last child. However, coinciding with the unknown origins of David and Margrietha his unrecorded birth is a strong indication that he came together with them from elsewhere and hence must have been their eldest child. His later spouse naming him in 1782 as the father of their premarital child Hendrik and his VOC engagement in 1783 exclude him to be younger than his youngest brother Jan Willem, born in 1773. Also all his siblings married after him, as if he was their eldest brother indeed. Of interest in the "Genealogy of David Stapel" is the reported date of Jan Hendrik's death: The Napoleontic civic register was not introduced until 1811 and the Gendt Churchbook on burials went lost during WWII. The Historische Kring Gente however keep a part copy, regrettably without the earlier certificates on the deaths of David and Margaretha.
Above RC birth certificate of their first daughter in nearby Hulhuizen is the first record in The Netherlands of David and Margrietha. The spelling of her name "Böge" in the Hulhuizen birth certificate is in German, the language they most likely still spoke as new arrivals in Gendt.
Two religions. The Roman Catholic baptism of David's and Margaretha's first daughter Johanna Maria was in contrast with the Evangelic and Dutch Reformed baptisms of their other children. This could have been incidental, due to registration rules in the border area around Gendt at the time of their arrival in the Netherlands. However, when Johanna Maria married with the Dutch Reformed Johannes van de Vendel, she did so as a recognised Roman Catholic, requiring both to "solemny vow to raise the offspring of their matrimony unrestrictedly in the Reformed Religion". This makes it credible that Johanna Maria was encouraged, if not brought up in her Catholic beliefs by one of her parents, suggesting that David and Anna Margaretha were of different faiths! It could explain why David and Margaritha were never confirmed as members of the Dutch Reformed Church in Gendt. Of their children only Johan Hendrik and Frederik were registered churchmembers, at the advanced age of 40 years over, accepted only a decade after Margaritha's death.
In out of Pomerania their origins and reasons for coming to Gendt are further explored. Religious beliefs supposedly have played a key role here.
(home = www.cstapel.nl)
Johan Hendrik (I) from Gendt is our earliest Stapel ancestor through connecting birth and marriage certificates. A Gendt's birth certificate on him does not exist and his 1790 marriage certificate does not mention parents, but the reverent started and crossed out again the word "born", continuing with "living under Gendt". So while Jan Hendrik's birthplace remained unrecorded in Gendt, it was clear that he did not come from the region.
Also unknown in Gendt are his whereabouts between 1782 and 1790, but in June 1783 a Jan Hendrik Stapel engaged with the VOC marine trading company in Amsterdam to stay away until March 1788. That must have been Johan Hendrik from Gendt, the more since he had no namesake in any of the contemporary Stapel families in the country. In VOC Paybook 6714 page 209 he undercrossed a 150 guilders debenture to "his mother M greesBeek", seemingly a rather incomprehensible name the writer tried to spell phonetically. In Gendt 1783 there was only one Stapel family, with the mother named Margaretha Böge, Beujens and Beugen in birth certificates. With a German g and in dialect this may have sounded like M'greet Beuk or Beek, with the t becoming a swish sound when lisped. All in all we can deduce that Margaretha Böger was his mother and therefore her husband David Stapel was his father. The debenture issued on her name is likely a sign that she was a widow already.
The "Genealogy of David Stapel, 1760 - 1922" by the Historische Kring Gente (Historic regional circle) contains a wealth of data on the Guelders' Stapel family, even without issue date, author(s) or references. Page 1 says about David Stapel: "David is married before Sunday, February 3, 1760 in Church with Anna-Margaretha Beuge". The date and church are taken from the RC birth certificate of their first child in Gendt. Johan Hendrik Stapel is mentioned as the last of their other 6 children, with the following information under II-d, page 71: "farmer, died in Gendt Sunday September 7, 1806". Evidently also the Historische Kring Gente could find neither marriage data on David and his wife, nor their or Johan Hendrik's birth certificate. By default they ranked Johan Hendrik as the last child. However, coinciding with the unknown origins of David and Margrietha his unrecorded birth is a strong indication that he came together with them from elsewhere and hence must have been their eldest child. His later spouse naming him in 1782 as the father of their premarital child Hendrik and his VOC engagement in 1783 exclude him to be younger than his youngest brother Jan Willem, born in 1773. Also all his siblings married after him, as if he was their eldest brother indeed. Of interest in the "Genealogy of David Stapel" is the reported date of Jan Hendrik's death: The Napoleontic civic register was not introduced until 1811 and the Gendt Churchbook on burials went lost during WWII. The Historische Kring Gente however keep a part copy, regrettably without the earlier certificates on the deaths of David and Margaretha.
Above RC birth certificate of their first daughter in nearby Hulhuizen is the first record in The Netherlands of David and Margrietha. The spelling of her name "Böge" in the Hulhuizen birth certificate is in German, the language they most likely still spoke as new arrivals in Gendt.
Two religions. The Roman Catholic baptism of David's and Margaretha's first daughter Johanna Maria was in contrast with the Evangelic and Dutch Reformed baptisms of their other children. This could have been incidental, due to registration rules in the border area around Gendt at the time of their arrival in the Netherlands. However, when Johanna Maria married with the Dutch Reformed Johannes van de Vendel, she did so as a recognised Roman Catholic, requiring both to "solemny vow to raise the offspring of their matrimony unrestrictedly in the Reformed Religion". This makes it credible that Johanna Maria was encouraged, if not brought up in her Catholic beliefs by one of her parents, suggesting that David and Anna Margaretha were of different faiths! It could explain why David and Margaritha were never confirmed as members of the Dutch Reformed Church in Gendt. Of their children only Johan Hendrik and Frederik were registered churchmembers, at the advanced age of 40 years over, accepted only a decade after Margaritha's death.
In out of Pomerania their origins and reasons for coming to Gendt are further explored. Religious beliefs supposedly have played a key role here.