Aug 10, 2026
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Tracing Your Friesland Heritage
Uncover your Frisian roots through terp villages, archives, and diaspora communities across the Netherlands’ most distinctive province.
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Love Netherlands
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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.
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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In today’s email:
- Discover Your Friesland Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History
- At The Café — Café De Sluyswacht — The Leaning House Bar by the Lock
- Around The Web — Discover Your North Holland Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History, Rotterdam Food Guide: Where to Eat, Drink and Explore the Market Scene (2026), Tracing Your Family in Drenthe: A Heritage Travel Plan + more
- From Love Netherlands — Best Time to Visit the Netherlands: A Month-by-Month Guide (2026)
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Erwtensoep — The Dutch Winter Soup That Made the Country
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Discover Your Friesland Roots: Heritage, Diaspora, and Family History
👉 Read the full story
Stand in the quiet churchyard of a terp village in Friesland — a mound of earth that farmers built by hand over centuries to keep the sea at bay — and you feel the weight of an extraordinary story. The families who lived here did not simply inhabit this land. They shaped it, defended it, and carried its memory with them when they left. If your surname traces back to this province, you carry a piece of that story too. Friesland is unlike any other Dutch province. It has its own language — Frisian — which is older than Dutch and closer to Old English than to modern Dutch. It has its own flag, its own anthem, and its own fierce sense of identity. For anyone researching Dutch ancestry, Friesland demands special attention: its records are distinctive, its naming conventions are unique, and its diaspora stretches from South Africa to the American Midwest in ways that continue to shape…
👉 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.
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At The Café
Café De Sluyswacht — The Leaning House Bar by the Lock
De Sluyswacht is a tiny lock-keeper’s house from 1695 that visibly tilts to one side, sitting at the edge of the Oudeschans canal. Inside the floors slope, the beams creak, and there’s a small terrace right at the water with one of the most photographed views in Amsterdam — straight down the canal towards the Montelbaanstoren. It’s been a café since the 1990s, but the building itself is one of the oldest wooden houses in the city. Order a Belgian beer, get one of the four outdoor tables, and watch boats negotiate the lock below.
👉 Visit the café
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Around The Web
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From Love Netherlands
The best time to visit the Netherlands depends entirely on what you want from your trip. If you dream of cycling past tulip fields under a warm spring sky, April is your month. If you prefer quiet museums, glögg in hand and rain tapping at café windows, January delivers something just as special. This month-by-month guide covers every season honestly, so you can plan a trip that matches your interests — not just the postcard version of the…
👉 Read the full story
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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Dutch Food You Will Love
Erwtensoep — The Dutch Winter Soup That Made the Country
Erwtensoep is a thick, green, nearly-a-stew soup made from split peas, smoked sausage, pork, celery, leek, and patience. The Dutch have a test for whether it’s ready — if your spoon can stand up in the pot, it’s done. It was the food of the canal skaters in winter, the men repairing dikes, the families waiting out a long January. It’s still served in every good café on cold days, with thick rye bread and butter. Order it once on a rainy afternoon and you’ll understand why the Dutch love their winters more than most countries love their summers.
👉 Read the full story
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