Jun 24, 2026
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Drenthe’s Hidden Family Names
Uncover the fascinating stories behind your Dutch ancestry in this ancient northeastern province.
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Love Netherlands
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Dear Netherlands,
There’s an old saying in the Netherlands: God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland. Drive across Zeeland, past the Delta Works, and you start to understand. Or stand at Kinderdijk at sunrise, when the windmills catch the first light and the canals are mirror-flat, and you can feel 800 years of stubbornness built into the landscape.
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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In today’s email:
- Dutch Surnames of Drenthe: Origins and Meanings
- At The Café — Café Locus Publicus — Rotterdam’s Belgian Beer Headquarters
- Around The Web — Best Beaches in the Netherlands: A Complete Guide for Visitors, Dutch Surnames of Zeeland: Origins and Meanings, Dutch Surnames of Overijssel: Origins and Meanings + more
- From Love Netherlands — Amsterdam’s Museum Quarter: The Complete Visitor Guide
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Raw Herring — The Dutch Test
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Dutch Surnames of Drenthe: Origins and Meanings
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Drenthe is one of the oldest parts of the Netherlands. This quiet province in the northeast holds secrets in every farm and field. If your family name comes from Drenthe, you carry ancient history with you. Dutch surnames from Drenthe are unlike those from Amsterdam or Rotterdam. Many come from farms, peat bogs, and small villages. Some are hundreds of years old. Others travelled far — to South Africa, America, and beyond. This guide explores the Dutch surnames of Drenthe , their origins, and what they can tell you about your roots. A Province Unlike Any Other Drenthe is the least-known province in the Netherlands. It sits between Groningen to the north and Overijssel to the south. Its landscape is flat, wide, and peaceful. The province is famous for its hunebedden. These are giant stone tombs built over 5,000 years ago. They still stand in the fields today. For centuries, Drenthe was…
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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.
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At The Café
Café Locus Publicus — Rotterdam’s Belgian Beer Headquarters
Locus Publicus is a wood-panelled café on the Oostzeedijk in Rotterdam, with more than 200 beers on the menu and a chalkboard of rotating Belgian taps that changes every fortnight. Rotterdam is mostly modern after the 1940 bombing, but Locus is the city’s quiet exception — wooden floors, candles in glass jars, a cat that sleeps on the bar. Locals come for the Trappist selection and the kitchen’s straightforward menu of stoofpotten and good charcuterie boards. It’s the bar that proves Rotterdam has the same drinking culture as Amsterdam, just told quieter.
👉 Visit the café
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Around The Web
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From Love Netherlands
Amsterdam’s Museum Quarter is one of Europe’s finest concentrations of art and culture. Clustered around Museumplein — a broad green square in the city’s south — you’ll find the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Stedelijk Museum within a five-minute walk of each other. Whether you have half a day or a full day to spare, this neighbourhood rewards anyone with even a passing interest in art, Dutch history, or simply watching Amsterdam life…
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Photo: Shutterstock
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Dutch Food You Will Love
Raw Herring — The Dutch Test
Every spring, a Dutch ritual unfolds on the streets of Amsterdam, The Hague, and Scheveningen. Herring stalls put out the year’s first catch — the Hollandse nieuwe — and locals queue to eat it raw, tipped back by the tail, sometimes on a soft white roll with onions. It tastes of the sea and of brine and, if you’re lucky, of nothing at all in the best possible way. Foreigners tend to grimace the first time. The Dutch laugh gently. “Three bites,” they say. “Then you love it forever.” They are usually right.
👉 Read the full story
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