Laurens Verniers: the life of our stamvader
Mennonite elder between Antwerp and Franeker — faith, friendship and dispute.
Maison VerniersHidden Stories
Persecution, flight and a new life — told from the sources
The confirmed line
Stamvader Laurens Verniers and his directly proven descendants, from Antwerp via Amsterdam to Weesp.
#1♡
Story
#2♡
Story
Abraham Verniers and the Middelburg Almanac of 1603
A chance find in a 17th-century book binding.
#3♡
Story
Abraham Verniers: a life without heirs
From Middelburg to Enkhuizen — and a marriage without children.
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Story
The 1625 will: Grietge Joosten, the Anslos, and the almshouse on the Egelantiersstraat
A notarial deed that links our stamvader, by name, to the Anslo family.
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Story
Grietge Joosten, her daughter, and the Anslo family
The 1582 betrothal and the 1601 sale of De Witte Voet — two deeds, one family tie.
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Story
Trijntgen Verniers and the link to Weesp
A nephew, Louwerens Verniers, and his probable son, alderman of Weesp in 1656 — the link to the Weesp branch of the family.
#7♡
Story
The Verniers family in Weesp: surgeons, administrators, and a bean in the coat of arms
Mr. Pieter Lourens Verniers, his 1648 master's examination, and a hypothesis about Mennonite administrators and the family coat of arms. (In progress.)
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Story
The Verniers family and the Golden Age: Rembrandt, Vondel, and Hooft
How a step-grandson of the family was painted by Rembrandt and celebrated by Vondel — and other leads towards the great names of the age. (In progress.)
#17♡
Story · hypothesis
Cloth, beer and wedding verses: the Anslos, the Schoutens and the road to Weesp
How a marriage of 1611 tied the Anslos to the wealthy brewers of Weesp — and perhaps showed the Verniers the way. (In progress.)
Mechelen
Captain Pieter Vernier and a possible old-noble family — not yet linked to our family line.
#9♡
Standalone story
Pieter Vernier: a captain, and an "old noble family of Mechelen"?
A namesake from the army of the Republic, married into the Dordrecht regent family Van Beverwijck — not (yet) linked to our own family line.
#10♡
Standalone story · in progress
The noble family of Pieter Vernier?
A working list of Vernier mentions from the Mechelen City Archives — still to be verified, hypothetical, worth investigating.
#11♡
Standalone story
Captain Vernier, side by side with Prince Maurits: the siege of Geertruidenberg, 1593
Day by day through the journal of Anthony Duyck — with a timeline and map of the campaign.
#16♡
Standalone story · in progress
Scattered traces: the name Vernier(s) across Europe
From Leuven to Rome, from the Franche-Comté to a noble house in the Berry — loose finds, none of them linked to our family line.
Ghent
Priests, land surveyors, schoolmasters and almanac writers named Verniers, spanning more than two centuries — not yet linked to our family line.
#12♡
Standalone story · in progress
Joos Verniers of Hof ter Schoonderhaege — a great-grandfather behind Alva's sentence?
A Ghent farm, a patronymic "Joesz", and the question of whether this is a great-grandfather of stamvader Laurens.
#13♡
Standalone story · in progress
Pieter Vernier, receiver: money, wine and linen in medieval Ghent (1403–1406)
A priest-financier, a brother who measured the wine, and the hospital of Sint-Jans-ten-Dullen that owed its income to those measurements.
#14♡
Standalone story
A family of writers in the 16th and 17th centuries?
Schoolmasters, land surveyors and almanac writers in Ghent: Jan, Gillis, Joos and Josse Verniers — not (yet) linked to our own family line. (In progress.)
Amsterdam
A second Verniers family, likewise fleeing from Antwerp to Amsterdam around 1600 — not yet linked to our family line.
#15♡
Standalone story · in progress
Joris Verniers: a second Antwerp family in Amsterdam
Progenitor Joris, his wife Maeijken De Windt, and their three children — a family with no demonstrated tie to our own family line.
This page is under construction — much like the research itself.