Aug 30, 2026
|
Trace Your Dutch Ancestry
Discover your family roots using free archives, church records, and expert resources from the Netherlands.
|
|
Love Netherlands
|
|
Dear Netherlands,
Amsterdam in April has a particular kind of quiet. The tulips are out in the park. The café terraces are full by ten. Somewhere in the Jordaan a church bell is telling the hour, and a barge is gliding past, and a child is learning to cycle without training wheels. This is the version of the Netherlands you came for.
|
|
Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe free and never miss an edition →
|
|
If the daily newsletter brings you closer to the Netherlands, our Sunday Premium Edition takes you deeper into it. Every Sunday you’ll receive travel deep dives, curated itineraries, regional stories, and hidden gems you won’t find anywhere else.
Upgrade for less than the price of a pint and see the Netherlands in a completely new way.
|
Photo via Love Netherlands
|
In today’s email:
- How to Trace Your Dutch Ancestry – Step-by-Step Guide (2026)
- At The Café — Café ‘T Mandje — The First Lesbian Bar in Amsterdam
- Around The Web — 3 Days in Amsterdam: The Perfect Itinerary for First-Time Visitors (2026), Discover Your North Brabant Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History, Discover Your North Brabant Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History + more
- From Love Netherlands — The Love Netherlands Guide № 002: King’s Day (Koningsdag)
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Kibbeling — The Dutch Fried Cod From the Fish Stall
|
How to Trace Your Dutch Ancestry – Step-by-Step Guide (2026)
👉 Read the full story
Your great-grandparents left the Netherlands generations ago. Now you want to find out where they came from. Dutch genealogy research can feel daunting. But the Netherlands holds some of the finest civil records in the world. This guide walks you through every step — from finding your ancestral gemeente to reading old church registers. Why Dutch Ancestry Research Rewards You About five million people of Dutch descent live in the United States today. South Africa’s Afrikaner community traces its roots directly to Dutch settlers from the seventeenth century. Millions more Dutch descendants live in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Indonesia. If you carry Dutch heritage, you belong to a remarkable global diaspora. The records to prove your roots exist and many are free to access online. The Netherlands introduced civil registration in 1811. Church records stretch back centuries before…
👉 Read the full story
Have you been there? Do you have a memory of this corner of the Netherlands? Hit reply and tell us — we’d love to hear your story.
|
|
“Want deep dives into the Netherlands every Sunday? Our Premium readers already have their next edition waiting.”
|
At The Café
Café ‘T Mandje — The First Lesbian Bar in Amsterdam
Café ‘T Mandje on the Zeedijk opened in 1927, run by Bet van Beeren — one of the first openly lesbian bar owners in the world. The bar’s interior is preserved exactly as Bet left it: dozens of cut-off ties pinned to the ceiling (her custom for any man who got too rowdy), framed photos of regulars from the 1930s onwards, and the same long wooden bar her customers leaned on for half a century. It’s still a working café and an active part of LGBTQ history. Stop in for a beer, take in the ceiling, and read the small museum corner near the door.
👉 Visit the café
|
Around The Web
|
From Love Netherlands
On one day each April, the entire country turns orange and the normal rules of commerce briefly dissolve: anyone can lay a blanket on the pavement and sell their old records, bicycle parts, and children’s toys without a permit or tax. This is the vrijmarkt , the free market that anchors the Netherlands’ biggest national party — a celebration of the reigning monarch’s birthday. Welcome to Guide № 002 in The Love Netherlands Guide series. Get the…
👉 Read the full story
|
Michielverbeek via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
|
Dutch Food You Will Love
Kibbeling — The Dutch Fried Cod From the Fish Stall
Kibbeling is bite-sized chunks of cod, dipped in spiced beer batter and deep-fried until the outside crackles and the fish inside flakes apart. Every fish stall in every Dutch town square sells it, served in a paper cone with a small pot of garlic-and-mustard whitlofsaus. There’s nothing quite like the first bite on a cold afternoon, salt and crisp and steam all in one go. Dutch fried fish is taken seriously here — every region has its own batter recipe, and the truly local stalls cook to order rather than pre-frying.
👉 Read the full story
|
|
Know Someone Who Loves the Netherlands?
If you’re enjoying this letter, the best thing you could do is forward it to one friend who’d love the Netherlands too. This newsletter grows by word of mouth alone — every single subscriber came from someone sending it to someone else. Thank you for being one of the first.
|
|
Our daily newsletter is free and always will be. But for less than the price of a pint, you can upgrade to our Sunday Premium Edition, which gives you access to our travel deep dives, curated itineraries, and regional stories. Consider buying us a stroopwafel — it’s the Dutch way to say thank you.
|
Also From Our Family
Love Ireland too? Over 64,000 readers wake up each morning to the Love Ireland newsletter — loveireland.substack.com
Or Scotland? Join 43,000 Scotland lovers — lovescotland.substack.com
|
|
You’re reading Love Netherlands — a free letter about canal towns, hidden villages, and Dutch stories, delivered Monday to Friday.
inlovewithnetherlands.com ·
Unsubscribe
© 2026 Love Netherlands · Part of the Love To Visit LLC family
|
