I have a Dutch Ancestor but can't find out how to research him before he moved to England

Question

My Grandmother Annie Louisa was born in England with the surname Willdock. It is an unusual name in England. I've traced her Willdock line back to a Soldier who fought in Egypt for England, who was blinded in battle and retired to England. It is Lewis Willdock or Wildock or Weldock, born in Amsterdam in 1762. Wikitree profile: Willdock-9

I have memberships for Ancestry and FindmyPast and MyHeritage, but can't find any info on him or ancestors from Holland.

I noticed there is a WikiTree group active on Dutch profiles so I would be interested if anyone was able to find out about Lewis in Holland before he became a Soldier and his ancestors?

I am new to WikiTree this year and I have so far made 917 contributions and still adding people and sources.

any help would be appreciated.

Martin Young

Comments

I hid my answer now - I'm not sure it is what you wanted me to do

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I reshowed your post. I think the request was to convert it from answer to comment. However, now thar Jan has added an answer, there is no longer a need to convert it.

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Thanks Jelena and Ellen. After a year of no responses I now have had a series of answers. I guess because it said "answered" no-one previously looked at it.

Answer 1

you should edit your question and add the "Dutch Roots" tag. That way our Dutch project will get alert to the post and may find your ancestor in the great Netherland's sources.

Comments

thanks Jelena. I have done this now, but I was previously unaware of what to put in the tags field. I tried all sorts of tags but every time it said I did not have enough points to create a tag.

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Jelena,

can you remove the "answered" tag from your answer, because it looks like my question was answered, so no-one has looked at it?

regards Martin

Answer 2

Searching the fully indexed Amsterdam 1760-1764 baptisms for father with surname w*l*k and child with first name l* returns only 1 record, with unlikely surname and first name.

Comments

thanks for doing the search. Weird he used that name as a British Soldier and subsequently after settling in England whilst recording his birthplace as Amsterdam. Martin

Answer 3

None of those surnames look to be Dutch.

Dutch surnames that it might be are
* Wilkoks

* Witlock

* Wittock

* Withock

* Weinstock

Lewis does occur as a Dutch name, but could also be Loius or Lourens

Comments

It doesn't even have to start with a W. Something like Veldhoek is also a possibility.

Answer 4

The surname Wil(l)dock / Wel(l)dock seems to be nonexistent in the past in the Netherlands. I've tried many variations of these names in Dutch genealogical websites but I couldn't find anything. Perhaps Lewis Willdock didn't use his surname in the period he lived in the Netherlands. My English ancestor Josua Speed moved from Suffolk to Amsterdam aroung 1605. For nearly 40 years  he used his patronymic Anthony in Amsterdam instead of his surname Speed. He started using his surname Speed again after leaving Amsterdam and moving to the north of the Netherlands. Maybe you could focus on a patronymic (possibly Thomas, James or John??) instead of the surname Willdock and variations.

Comments

thanks for trying. Martin

Answer 5

Hi Martin,

Like others here, I searched the online Dutch archives for you and came up with zilch. I see that you have done a DNA test. Have you already uploaded it to myHeritage? If so, have you got any big Dutch matches? A lot of Dutch use myHeritage more so than Ancestry. It might give you a direction to search. Personally I have managed to solve quite a few mysteries in my family this way.

Comments

Yes I have loaded my DNA to MYHeritage, but usually I've only looked at matches on Ancestry as I find MyHeritage confusing. I will try again. Thanks. Martin