I spent some time googling around about our ancestral homeland. Our ancestors hail from two villages in northwest Holland. The two locations are less than five miles apart, which explains why these families intermarried so much. Schoorl is on the coast, and Eenigenburg is inland.
When I began looking at images of Schoorl, I was blown away by its similarities to northern Indiana– all sand dunes and woods! Those of you who love the Indiana Dunes like I do might also find this as eerie and validating as I do. The dunes are in our blood! I think of our ancestors digging their toes into the Schoorl Dunes for generations, then making the arduous journey to America, and finding the same thing along the dunes of Lake Michigan.
Just for fun, without looking at the captions, which of the two photos below do you think are from Schoorl, and which is from Indiana?
Here’s Eenigenburg, which seems quite flat and even more rural, much like inland northern Indiana (Schoorl has become one of the Netherlands’ top tourist destinations; Hine reunion 2010, anyone?)
Wow! That’s so cool. The dune similarities are amazing! I’m up for reunion 2010 if I hit the lottery, lol!